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PREFACE. 



In giving the following pages to the press, their 
Author would desire, in the first place, to ac- 
knowledge the kindness which from many quar- 
ters, both in America and England, has supplied 
him with the materials for their composition. 
Never can he forget the ready aid which he has 
received from personal strangers on the other 
side of the Atlantic. To particularise any, 
where he cannot enumerate all, he feels to be 
impossible. He can only express his earnest 
wish that his volume were more worthy of their 
several contributions ; and his hope that, in 
stating openly and freely what seem to him to 
be the defects of the organisation or conduct 
of their body, he shall give no needless pain 
to any one. Convinced as he is that to draw 
a veil over such evils would be disloyalty to 
their common cause, he has felt under an im- 
perative necessity of speaking openly and fully. 



VI PREFACE. 

But it would most deeply grieve him, were any 
cause of offence to be found in his words, or 
any thing which could sever those who should 
be so closely united as the Churchmen of Eng- 
land and America. On the subject to which 
he here especially refers, namely, the treatment 
of the coloured race, the use of the Church's 
moral influence alone, in its behalf, is that 
which he would claim. And this claim he ad- 
vances under a humbling sense of the past de- 
ficiencies of members of his own communion. 
Still, in their behalf it must be urged, that they 
were afar from the sight, and therefore from 
the real knowledge, of the evils of colonial life. 
Those evils would not have been endured, had 
they been daily submitted to the eyes of the 
laity and clergy of the English Church. 

On one other important point a few words 
must here be added to the following pages. 
Throughout their course the Author has felt 
oppressed by the recurring question, how he 
ouo'ht to deal with those other religious bodies 
by which the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
North America is so abundantly surrounded. 
To have entered into their history would, within 
the limits of this work, have been absolutely 



PREFACE, Vll 



impossible ; and yet, to confine himself to the 
history of one department only of the vast host 
which bears the Christian name, must of neces- 
sity give to his work a narrow and one-sided 
tone. To avoid this wholly, he believes to have 
been impossible, and he has therefore submitted 
to it; writing the history, not of religion, but of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. Only would 
he here protest against being supposed to enter- 
tain any intention of contemptuously passing by 
the many great deeds for Christ's truth wrought 
in that western world by the members of other 
societies, or of pronouncing by the way a de- 
cisive judgment on any of the intricate ques- 
tions to which the co-existence of these various 
bodies must give birth. He has dealt with 
them only as they directly affect that com- 
munion whose history he writes ; and in doing 
so, he has endeavoured to treat them honestly 
and fairly, although from his limits, it must be, 
slightly and imperfectly. 

Amongst those who in this country have 
assisted him with valuable materials, and to 
whom he would beg publicly to return his 
thanks, he may venture to enumerate his fa- 
ther's early friend, Thomas Clarkson ; the Rev. 



Vlll PREFACE. 



H. H. Norris, of Hackney ; Petty Vaughan, 
Esq.; the Lord Bishop of London,— who most 
liberally allowed him access to all the MS. trea- 
sures of the Fulham library ; the Rev. H. Cas- 
wall, — whose local knowledge made him able 
to revise those parts which touch upon existing 
institutions; and the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, Se- 
cretary to the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts. 

To the labours of that society the following 
pages repeatedly bear witness. They shew on 
this one stage how, throughout the coldness and 
negligence of the last century, w T hen, in this land 
at least, no other body so made head against the 
general apathy as to think of the foreign ad- 
vancement of the Gospel as a Christian duty, 
this venerable society ever followed in the wake 
of our colonial extension, watched for opportu- 
nities of sowing the good seed, laboured ever 
noiselessly and unobserved in this great work, 
nurtured the faint beginnings of colonial piety, 
and has been, under God's grace, the one first 
instrument in preventing the upgrowth of posi- 
tive infidelity, and in promoting the existence 
and spread of Christianity throughout those vast 
districts which make up our colonial empire — 



PREFACE. IX 



the widest empire and the greatest trust which 
God ever committed to any people. 

The Author feels that his labour will not 
have been in vain, if, by seeing what was at- 
tempted, and what was effected, in America, by 
this society, any of his readers are aroused to 
consider what are indeed its claims upon their 
grateful and affectionate support. 



a2 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Interest of general subject— Times of Queen Elizabeth— Influence 
of the Reformation — Martin Frobisher — His first voyage— A 
native kidnapped — Second and third voyages— Master Wolfali 
— Black ore — Sir Humphrey Gilbert — Letters patent — Reli- 
gious purpose of colonisation— Prospect of its late fulfilment 
— Gilbert's second voyage— His death— Sir Walter Raleigh — 
His expeditions — Tobacco— Settlements — Raleigh's troubles : 
and death — Settlement of Virginia — Robert Hunt — James 
Town — Captain Smith— Trials of the Settlers — Starving time 
— Lord Delaware — Master Bucke — Whitaker — Pocohontas 
— Early laws 



CHAPTER II. 

from 1620 to 1688. 

Virginian Company — Measures of Sir E. Sandys, Nicholas Ferrar, 
and others — Churches endowed — College founded — Mr. Thorpe 
— Indian massacre— Indian conquest — Effects of the massacre 
— Virginia in the Great Rebellion — Loyalty — Love of the 
Church — Effects of Puritan rule — King Charles II. proclaimed 
— Enactments of Legislature in behalf of the Church — Popish 
plots suspected 30 



CHAPTER III. 

from 1608 to 1688. 

Neighbouring colonies— New York — New Jersey — Philadelphia 
— Carolina — Maryland — New England— Its settlement — Rise 
of Puritanism in England — Emigration, to Ley den, to New 



Xll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

England— Piety of the early Puritans— Their hatred of Church 
principles — Severity — Treatment of Indians — Proselyting 
spirit towards other communions 41 



CHAPTER IV. 

from 1688 to 1775. 

Spiritual destitution of the colonies— Exertions of Bishop of Lon- 
don, Hon. Robert Boyle, and others— Drs. Blair and Bray sent 
as commissaries to Virginia and Maryland — New York con- 
quered by English— Trinity Church endowed — Progress of the 
Church in New England — Boston petition for episcopal wor- 
ship — Foundation of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel — Religious state of the colonies — Labours of the mis- 
sionaries of the Venerable Society — Rev. George Keith — Vio- 
lence of Quakers — Opposition from New England magistrates 
—Yale College— Leading Congregation alists join the Church — 
Progress of the Church at Newtown under Mr. Beach — Vio- 
lence of Congregationalists — General state of the Church in 
Virginia — Mr. Whitefield — Spreading dissent— Rise of Anabap- 
tists in Virginia— Resistance to the clergy — Low state of Church 
— Its causes— Clergy dependent on their flocks — Want of bi- 
shops — Attempts to obtain an American episcopate, in the 
reign of Charles II., of Queen Anne— Bishop Berkeley opposed 
by Walpoie— Supported by Archbishop Seeker — Efforts in the 
colonies— Zeal of northern colonies— Virginia refuses to jcin 
in the attempt— Causes of this refusal 84 



CHAPTER V. 

from 1775 to 1783-4, 

Revolutionary war — Loyalty of the Northern clergy— Persecu- 
tion — Virginian clergy generally loyal— Treated with violence 
—Thomas Jefferson — Zeal of the Anabaptists — Their hatred 
to the Church — Repeal of all former acts in its favour — In- 
comes of the clergy stopped — They are stripped even of the 
glebes and churches— Conduct of the Methodists — John Wes- 
ley persuaded to consecrate Dr. Coke — Low state of the 
Church at the end of the war — Religion at a low ebb — The 
revolutionary war a consequence of the Church not having 
been planted in America . , , . . .171 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

from 1783 to 1787. 

PAGE 

Depression of the Church — Parties — And Opinions— Attempted 
organisation in the south— Mr. White — Conventions in Vir- 
ginia and Philadelphia — Agreement on common principles — 
First movements for general union — General voluntary meet- 
ing at New York — Want of episcopate — Movement amongst the 
eastern clergy — They elect Dr. Seabury bishop — He sails for 
England — Disappointed of consecration there — Dr. Berkeley 
and the Scotch bishops — Dr. Seabury applies to them — Oppo- 
sition — His consecration — And return — First convention at 
Philadelphia — Difference of opinion — Dr. White — Proposed 
liturgy — Application to the English prelates for the apostolical 
succession — Their objections to some changes in the liturgy — 
These reconsidered — Drs. White and Provoost embark for 
England— Are consecrated at Lambeth — Return to America, 
April 1787 187 



CHAPTER VII. 

Convention assembles— Case of Dr. Bass— -Bishop Seabury joins 
the Convention — The Liturgy — First and succeeding con- 
secrations — Period of depression — Its causes — Ecclesiastical 
constitution — Parish — Diocese — Convention — Laity in con- 
vention — Anglo-Saxon usage — Difficulties of true organisation 
in America — Neglect of the mother-country .... 220 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FROM 1801 TO 1811-12. 

Death and character of Bishop Seabury — Bishop White— Bishop 
Provoost — His character — Resigns the episcopal jurisdiction 

— Nomination and consecration of Bishop Moore — His cha- 
racter — Improvement of the state of the Church — Maryland 

— Bishop Claggett — Party spirit — Bishop Claggett applies 
for a suffragan — Division of convention in 1812— Method 
of electing a bishop — The laity negative the nomination of 
the clergy — Convention of 1813— No attempt at an election 
made — Dr. Kemp elected suffragan in 1814 — Consequent 
party feuds — Bishop Claggett's death — Dr. Kemp succeeds 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PA.GE 

— His death — Renewed contests as to the episcopate — Bi- 
shop Stone elected — Troubles on his death — The see vacant 
— State of Delaware— No bishop — Application to Maryland — 
Refused — Decay of the Church there — And in Virginia— Issue 
of the long struggle with the Anabaptists and others — The 
glebes confiscated — Prostration of the Church . . . 260 



CHAPTER IX. 

1811, 12. 

Death of Bp. Madison — Renewal of diocesan convention — Elec- 
tion of Dr. Bracken to the episcopate — He refuses it — Dr. 
Moore elected — His early life — Ministerial success — He 
visits the diocese — Stirs up the spirit of Churchmen — Re- 
vival of the Church — Growth of Church principles — Im- 
proved canons — Theological seminary founded — And poor 
scholars' fund — Dr. Meade elected suffragan, with a restric- 
tion — Conduct of the^ house of bishops — Removal of re- 
strictions—Bishop B. Moore of New York applies for an 
assistant bishop — Dr. J. H. Hobart elected — His origin and 
youth — First ministerial charge in Pennsylvania — Removes 
to New York — His studies — Publications — Services in 
state and general convention — Controversy with Dr. Mason 

— Elected bishop — Opposition — Bishop Provoost's claim to 
the bishopric of New York — Disallowed by the convention 

— Bishop "White's treatment of Bishop Hobart — And high 
esteem for him 



CHAPTER X. 

FROM 1810 TO 1820. 

Episcopate of Bishop Hobart — Two first years of opposition — 
Rise of Church societies — Effect upon the laity— New tone of 
feeling and action — Bishop Hobart with his clergy — His 
language as to the Church of Rome— His visitations — General 
spread of the Church —Increase of bishoprics — State of i; the 
West" — Need of missionary pastors — Pioneers of the Church 
—Lay readers — Samuel Gunn — His early years — Labours — 
Removal to Ohio — Consecration of Bishop Chase — His life- 
Founds Kenyon College — Its building — Students — Their 
missionary excursions — How received — Funds for domestic 



CONTENTS, XV 

PAGE 

purposes — J ackson Kemper — Bishop Hobart's canon — His 
labours amongst the Indians — Oneida reserves — Eleazer 
Williams— His history—- The bishop's visit . .31! 



CHAPTER XI. 

FROM 1820 TO 1836. 

American education — Temper of American youth — Jealousy of 
high education— Absence of theological training — Foundation 
of the General Theological Seminary — Its success— Bishop 
Hobart's connexion with it — His death — And character — 
Bishop B. T. Onderdonk succeeds— Increase of the episcopate 
—Bishops Ravenscroft and Ives of North Carolina — Bishop 
Meade of Virginia — And H. U. Onderdonk, assistant bishop 
of Pennsylvania— Bishop Chase of Ohio — Resigns his bishopric 
— Consecrations of Bishops M'llvaine of Ohio, Hopkins of 
Vermont, Smith of Kentucky, and Doane of New Jersey- 
Change of feeling as to the episcopate — Convention of 1835— 
Bishop Chase of Illinois — Division of dioceses — New orga- 
nisation of missionary board — The missionary bishop — Bishop 
Kemper consecrated — Success of the new plan — Subsequent 
growth of the Church — Bishop White's illness — Death and 
character 357 



CHAPTER. XII. 

Present influence of the Episcopal Church — Rapid extension — 
Estimated numbers — Clergy — Extent and population of dio- 
ceses — Influence on the moral character of the people — Fa- 
vourable symptoms — Sects — Revivals — Socinianism— Sober 
tone of the Church — Duelling — Its character in America — 
Instance — Church resists duels — Canon — Instance — Unfa- 
vourable symptoms — Divorce — Marriage — Treatment of the 
coloured race — The great sore of America — State of negroes 
in the South, religious, moral, physical— Slave-breeding states 

— Internal slave-trade — Duty of the Church to testify — Her 
silence — Participation — Palliation of these evils — State of 
the coloured population in the North — Insults — Degradation 

— Caste — Duty of the Church — Her silence — Case of General 
Theological Seminary — Alexander Crummell — Estimate of 
her influence — Her small hold on the poor — Architecture 
and arrangement of churches — Pew-rent system — Prospects 



XVI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

of the Church — Danger from indifference to formal truth — . 
Chaplains to Congress — Thomas Jefferson — Romanism — Its 
schismatical rise in America — Spread in the West — Promises 
a refuge from the sects — Courts democracy — Main resistance 
from the Church — How she may be strong — Need of ad- 
hering to her own principles — Of a high moral tone — The 
slave-question — Favourable promise — Higher principles — 
More care of the poor — Coloured race — Gains on the popu- 
lation—Conclusion 396 



•ssouri and Indiana. 



Delaware. 



Maine. \ Alabama, 



;son Kemper, D.D. : 



'' Missionary bishop. 



1785 



Michigan. 



Florida. 



1820 



S. A. M'Coskrey 



THE 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Interest of general subject — Times of Queen Elizabeth— Influence of 
the Reformation — Martin Frobisher — His first voyage — A native 
kidnapped — Second and third voyages — Master Wolf all— Black ore 
— Sir Humphrey Gilbert — Letters patent — Religious purpose of co- 
lonisation — Prospect of its late fulfilment — Gilbert's second voyage 
— His death— Sir Walter Raleigh — His expeditions — Tobacco — Set- 
tlements — Raleigh's troubles : and death— Settlement of Virginia — 
Robert Hunt— James Town— Captain Smith — Trials of the Settlers 
— Starving time— Lord Delaware — Master Bucke — Whitaker — Po- 
cohontas— Early laws. 

Few subjects can be more full of interest to mem- 
bers of the Church of England than the history of 
the Church in America. Indeed, the Church in every 
daughter nation has large claims on the affections 
of the mother state ; and other circumstances here 
combine to strengthen the strait bands of Christian 
love. Our long neglect of our bounden duty, fol- 

B 



^ AMERICAN CHURCH. 

lowed as it has been by God's merciful acceptance 
of our latest service, may well call out our affection 
for this child of our old age. Full of interest is it 
also to watch the up-growth of such a body amongst 
institutions so unlike our own ; to note its various 
nourishment and well-proportioned increase in the 
western wilderness into which it has been given 
wings to fly. 

Such a narrative is full also of instruction. Many 
are the grounds for self-upbraiding and humiliation 
which it brings before us ; and rich are its lessons 
as to the true treatment in religious matters of the 
dependent colonies of any Christian people. 

The age of Elizabeth, fertile in great men, pro- 
duced especially great naval heroes : all the circum- 
stances of the nation favoured their production. The 
fierce hostility of Spain forced upon England espe- 
cial attention to her navy. The service of the sea 
had not as yet grown into a separate "profession ; to 
equip and to command a ship became a common 
practice of ambitious courtiers, and even of indepen- 
dent country gentlemen. The rich plate fleets of 
Spain often repaid the expense of fitting out an ex- 
pedition, and not seldom was a goodly inheritance 
sold to furnish forth the daring adventurer. To this 
inducement was added the alluring hope of making 
profitable foreign settlements. The mines of Span- 
ish America glittered before the eyes of many an 
ardent Englishman ; and he eagerly exchanged his 
patrimony here for the hope of those golden acres 



MARTIN FROBISHER. 6 

which he expected to possess on the other side of 
the Atlantic, on the easy terms of paying to the 
Queen the fifth part of all precious metals. 

Other causes, moreover, were at work preparing 
the way for extensive emigration. The reformation 
of religion had restored to its full vigour the na- 
tional life of England, which even popery had not 
been strong enough to stifle utterly ; and one of the 
first fruits of this revival was, its sending forth its 
race beyond the narrow limits of their own land. 
This tendency to wander has always marked the 
Anglo-Saxon family ; and the formation of a middle 
class, by the diffusion of wealth and the spread of 
mercantile adventure, at once set the current into 
active motion. It was accordingly in the reign of 
Elizabeth that the first attempt was made to found 
an English colony on the shores of America. 

The first steps which led to the vast undertaking 
are not a little curious. Among the stirring spirits 
of the time none adventured more in maritime ex- 
ploits than Captain Martin Frobisher. He " being 
persuaded of a new and nearer passage to Cataya 1 
than by Cape de Buona Speranza, which the Portu- 
guese yearly use, determined with himself to go and 
make full proof thereof." 2 After many delays he 
accordingly set forth upon the loth of June, 1576, 
in two barques of twenty and twenty-five tons bur- 

1 i.e. China. 

2 Hackluyt's Collection of Early Voyages, vol. iii. p. 85. 



4 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

den, provisioned for twelve months, on this danger- 
ous voyage. Deserted by his second barque, this 
gallant man pushed on in those unknown regions, 
amidst " cruel storms of snow and haile, great islands 
of yce, and mighty deere that seemed to be man- 
kinde, which ranne at him so that hardly he escaped 
with his life :"* until he discovered the straits which 
bear his name. 2 Having advanced so far, and finding 
the cold still increasing, he turned his face home- 
ward ; but first being desirous to bring thence some 
token of his travel, he wrought what, in the temper 
of the times, is termed by his biographer " a pretty 
policy." Knowing that the natives " greatly de- 
lighted in toyes and belles, he rang a pretty low 
bell, making signs that he would give him the same 
who would come and fetch it : and because they 
would not come within his danger, for feare, he flung 
one bell unto them, which of purpose he threw short, 
that it might fall into the sea and be lost ; and to make 
them more greedy of the matter, he rang a louder 
bell, so that in the end one of them came neere the 
ship side to receive the belle, and was taken him- 
self; for the captain being readily provided, let the 
bell fall, and caught the man fast, and plucked him 
with maine force, boat and all, into his barke ; which 
strange infidell, whose like was never seene, read, 

1 Hackluyt, vol. iii. pp. 67, 68, 87. 

2 Frobisher's Straits, lying to the north of Cape Farewell 
and West Greenland, long. 42 W., lat. 63 N. 



EAKLY VOYAGES. 



nor heard of before, was a sufficient witness of the 
captains farre and tedious travell." 1 

But the native thus cruelly kidnapped was not 
the only specimen they gathered. They brought 
home also " some floures, some greene grass, and 
one a piece of blacke stone, much like to a sea-cole 
in coloure, which by the weight seemed to be some 
kind of metall or minerall." This was " a thing of 
no account at first sight, in the judgement of the 
captain;" but after his return " it fortuned a gentle- 
woman, one of the adventurers wives, to have a piece 
thereof, which by chance she threw and burned in 
the fire so long, that at the length being taken forth 
and quenched in a little vinegar, it glistered with a 
bright marquesset of gold ;" whereupon, having been 
adjudged by certain goldfiners in London " to holde 
golde, and that very nobly for the quantity," it in- 
flamed the public mind w T ith notions of the great 
wealth of those parts ; and in the hope of rivalling 
the mines of Peru, another expedition was shortly 
afterwards set forth. 

The captain's " special commission" on this voy- 
age was directed to the searching for this golden 
ore ; and so high was expectation raised, that he was 
admitted, before he sailed, into the Queen's presence ; 
and after " kissing her highness' hand, with gracious 
countenance and comfortable words, departed to- 
wards his charge." He sailed with three ships on 



1 Hackluyt, voL iii. p. 87. 
b 2 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the 25th of May, 1577, hoping to bring home vast 
spoils of gold from the frozen shores of the meta 
incognita. On reaching this inhospitable coast these 
expectations were increased by their finding" spiders, 
which, as many affirm, are signes of great store of 
gold," 1 and by the assurance that streams flowed 
into the sea beneath the frozen surface, " by which 
the earth within is kept warmer, and springs have 
their recourse, which is the only nutriment of golde 
and minerals." 2 

When, therefore, the expedition reached the 
straits, no new discoveries were attempted ; but hav- 
ing, " with five poore miners and the help of a few 
gentlemen and soldiers," who laboured so hard that, 
by " overstraining, they received hurts not a little 
dangerous," " reasonably well filled their shippes," 
they set sail with about 200 tons of ore, " every 
man therewithal well comforted," and reached home 
safely on the 23d day of September. 

The captain of the returning expedition repaired 
to Windsor, " to advertise her Majesty of his pro- 
sperous proceedings." These were considered of so 
promising a character, that a larger expedition was 
soon planned, which was to carry out a " number of 
chosen soldiers and discreet men, who should be 
assigned to inhabit there." For this purpose forty 
mariners, thirty miners, and thirty soldiers, besides 
gentlemen, goldfiners, bakers, carpenters, and other 

1 Hackluyt, vol. iii. pp. 63, 88. 2 Ibid. p. 64. 



EARLY VOYAGES. / 

necessary persons, were embarked on board of" fifteen 
sayle of goode ships," which set off from Harwich 
on the 31st of May. 

The name of one other adventurer must not be 
left unrecorded, since a higher object than the thirst 
of gold led him to face the dangers of the frozen 

B B 

sea. This was one " Master Wolfall, a learned man, 
appointed by her Majesty's council to be their minis- 
ter and preacher, who, being well seated and settled 
at home in his owne countrey, with a good and large 
living, having a good honest woman to wife and very 
towardly children, being of good reputation amongst 
the best, refused not to take in hand this painfull 
voyage, for the only care he had to save soules and 
to reform those infidels, if it were possible, to Chris- 
tianitie." 1 

Frobisher again acted as admiral ; but the sea- 
son was less favourable than it had been in former 
years. The straits were closed ; and they were 
" forced many times to stemme and strike great 
rocks of yce, and so, as it were, make way through 
mighty mountaines." The icebergs were so vast, 
that, under the action of the sun, their tops melted 
and poured down streams " which made a pretie 
brooke, able to drive a mill." One bark was struck 
by such a floating island, and " sunk down there- 
with in the sight of the whole fleete ;" whilst the 
rest " were fame to submit themselves and their 

1 Hackluyt, vol. iii p. llti. 



b AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ships to the mercy of the unmercyful yce, strengthen- 
ing the sides of their ships with juncks of cables, 
beds, mastes, plankes, and such like, which being 
hanged overboard, on the sides of their ships, might 
the better defend them from the outrageous sway 
and stroke of the said yce." 1 " The brunt," how- 
ever, " of these so great and extreme dangers, the 
painfull mariners and poore miners overcame," and 
about the beginning of iVugust, they reached their 
former harbour in safety ;" for which " they highly 
praysed God, and altogether, upon their knees, gave 
Him due, humble, and heartie thanks." Upon such 
occasions, " Master Wolfall celebrated a communion 
upon land, at the partaking whereof was the captaine 
and many other gentlemen, and souldiers, mariners, 
and miners, with him. The celebration of the Divine 
mystery was the first signe, seale, and confirmation 
of Christ's name, death, and passion ever knowen in 
these quarters." 

But it was soon found that the main object of the 
expedition must be abandoned. The fear of death 
from cold and hunger possessed those who were 
selected to remain, and they threatened a mutiny. 
In the quaint language of their historian, they did 
" greatly feare being driven to seek sowre sallets 
amongst the cold cliffs ;" and it was at length re- 
solved that they should defer the intended settlement 
until another year, and return home, laden with the 

1 Hackluyt, vol. iii. p. 109, &c. 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. y 

black ore which promised gold. When this de- 
lusion was discovered we are not told ; but, after 
this voyage, the "black ore" is. never mentioned 
further. 

Such were the first attempts at forming an English 
settlement in America ; fruitless in themselves, and 
yet preparing the way for wiser and more successful 
efforts. Men with nobler aims than finding ore of gold 
were soon engaged in the work. Sir Humphrey Gil- 
bert, himself a courtier of Queen Elizabeth, and nearly 
connected with that " prince of courtesy," Sir Walter 
Raleigh, was " the first of our nation that caused 
people to erect an habitation and government in 
these countreys." Instead of seeking to discover 
mines and acquire great riches suddenly, he desired 
" to prosecute effectually the full possession of these 
so ample and pleasant countreys for the crown and 
people of England." Amidst the motives given for 
this his so " virtuous and heroical minde," are " the 
honour of God, compassion of poore infidels captived 
by the devil (it seeming probable that God hath re- 
served these Gentiles to be reduced into Christian 
civility by the English nation), advancement of his 
honest and well-disposed countrymen willing to ac- 
company him in such honourable actions, and reliefe 
of sundry people within this realme distressed." 

These were great and noble ends, and they were 
not lightly undertaken ; he knew that " the carri- 
age of God's word into those very mighty and vast 
countreys, was a high and excellent matter, likely to 



10 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

excite God's heavy judgements if it were intermeddled 
in with base purposes." 

His preparations were suitable to these convic- 
tions. He sacrificed the bulk of his fortune at home, 
in order to complete the equipment of his ships ; and 
gathered a numerous party of volunteers to settle 
this new land. The letters patent, which were grant- 
ed to him by the Queen, proceed upon the supposi- 
tion, that the spread of the Christian faith amongst 
the natives justified such settlements. His patent 
granted him " free power and liberty to discover all 
such heathen lands as were not actually possessed 
by any Christian prince or people." To his settlers 
were secured the rights of Englishmen, whilst to 
himself was assigned the sole jurisdiction, civil and 
military, of the country within 200 leagues of his 
settlement, " provided always, that the statutes he 
devized should be, as near as conveniently might, 
agreeable to the laws and policy of England; and 
provided also, that they be not against the true 
Christian faith professed in the Church of England." 

The most marked feature of the whole adven- 
ture is this repeated recognition of the making known 
the faith of Christ as its leading object : and far as 
after years fell below these early aspirations, and 
long, therefore, as this blessed end has been defer- 
red, we at least who look across the broad Atlantic 
to the orderly and happy increase of the daughter 
Church, are allowed to witness much of its comple- 
tion. Few sights can call more loudly for deep gra- 



CAUSES OF DIVISION. 11 

titude to God. Our own peculiar situation must 
make us watch with an unusual love the welfare of 
this body ; for, as an independent national commu- 
nion, this is our only offspring ; and we are separated 
more or less from all around us. Old divisions, 
centuries ago, have parted widely the East from the 
West ; whilst, nearer home, the deep pollutions and 
schismatical violence of Rome have rudely shivered 
the visible unity of Christendom ; dividing us through 
our recovered purity of doctrine from all in union 
with herself, and leading to our separation from the 
mass of the reformed communions through that want 
of apostolic order w T ith which the clinging curse of 
her old corruption has afflicted them. There are few 
sadder thoughts for faithful hearts than those which 
spring from the consideration of these multiplied di- 
visions. Those who remember that their Lord's last 
prayer for His disciples was, that " they all might be 
one," must long earnestly for that time when, in visible 
oneness, " the Holy Church throughout all the world 
shall acknowledge Him." They must weep for the 
remembrance of those early ages, when those that 
believed in Christ in different lands were all seen by 
the joints of the common episcopate to be of one 
body and in communion with each other. 

How our present divisions can be healed, and the 
blessing of visible unity again be restored to the 
Church, the most sanguine speculation cannot forecast. 
But the first great obstacle which bars all progress 
towards it is, the fearful error, that the different mem- 



12 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

bers of the Church must find their union with each 
other through union with the see of Rome. For this 
is, indeed, to deny the presence of Christ with His 
Church, which is her true glory : since that pre- 
sence would make her everywhere a centre to her- 
self, and would unite her several parts between 
themselves by their common union with Him. This, 
therefore, exalts into the place of Christ that which 
they fondly name " the Holy See," and makes the 
Church the representative of an absent, instead of 
the instrument for conveying to each soul the myste- 
rious presence of an unseen Saviour. 

This one delusion must prevent our ever desir- 
ing any union with Rome. For it is not merely that 
her creed is defaced with human additions, or her 
practice fallen and corrupt on separate points : these 
we might hope to see one by one abandoned or re- 
formed, until the time might come when we could 
be again united with her. But this cannot be until 
this master-deceit is altogether thrown aside ; until 
she shall cease to exalt the Church, as she designates 
her own communion, into the place of Christ, and to 
require oneness with it, as the condition of union 
with her Lord. 

Most unlike this was the union of the earliest 
times ; when, with no professed visible centre of 
unity, each diocese, under its own bishop, was a 
free and equal member of the common body ; and 
all was gathered into unity under one Head — their 
unseen but present Saviour. The best promise of 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 13 

such a restoration is in the wide- spread and intimate 
connexion of those branches of the Church which 
are reformed in doctrine, and apostolical in disci- 
pline. 

On every ground, therefore, we must needs look 
with more than common interest upon the daughter- 
communion of the West. This is " the seed the 
Lord hath given us ;" these are the children of her 
who was too long barren. In our intercourse with 
them we may return to the happy condition of pri- 
mitive times, when the people of Christ, though in 
various countries and under different rules, made up 
but one body, and lived in the daily and perpe- 
tual interchange of acts of Christian brotherhood. 
Such a fellowship with distant countries we shall 
find the best argument against the specious show of 
Roman unity, and one great safeguard for our people 
against its allurements. 

In this connexion, therefore, it is full of interest 
to trace back our first national attempts at founding 
colonies to the spirit of the reformation ; to find that 
we owe, in no slight measure, our maritime supre- 
macy and wide colonial empire to the same true- 
hearted martyrs who, under God, bequeathed to us, 
by their witness and their blood, our English Bible 
and reformed communion. 

The first expedition was designed in strict ac- 
cordance with the royal charter ; but when just on 
the eve of sailing, dissension broke up the band. 
Nothing daunted, however, the gallant Sir Hum- 

c 



14 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

phrey still set forth, with a small company of faithful 
adherents. Of the adventures of this voyage there 
is scarcely any record. Its issue was unfortunate ; 
mainly, as it is believed, from a conflict with the 
Spaniards, when, in a " dangerous sea-fight, many 
of his company were slain, and his ships therewith 
also sore battered and disabled." 1 

Five years elapsed before any fresh expedition 
was fitted out; but in 1585 the approaching expir- 
ation of his patent, which was to last but six years 
unless some settlement was effected, spurred him 
on to one more effort. The sale of all his landed 
property, with the assistance of other wealthy ad- 
venturers, enabled him to fit up two ships and three 
small barques, with which he set forth to colonise 
the new world. He sailed with the highest expec- 
tations. The haughty Elizabeth, though she would 
not share in the risk of the undertaking, conde- 
scended to bestow on him a golden anchor, in proof 
of her esteem ; and Parmenius, an Hungarian scholar, 
went with him to chronicle his voyage. He crossed 
the Atlantic safely ; and having reached the harbour 
of St. John's, Newfoundland, — even then a fishing- 
station where thirty-six sail of all nations were as- 
sembled, — he took possession of the territory, in 
spite of opposition, in his sovereign's name. Here 
a Saxon " mineral man," who formed part of his 
company, assured him, " on the peril of his life," 

1 Hollinshed's Chronicles, vol. ii. fol. 1586 ; epist. ded. 



DEATH OF GILBERT. 15 

that an ore he had discovered was nothing else 
than silver, which " is generally found in cold cli- 
mates." 1 But Gilbert was above the low temptations 
of avarice. His views were of a nobler kind ; and, 
ordering his " mineral man" to guard sacredly the 
secret, he resolved to prosecute a full examination 
of the southern coast. Had his success equalled his 
resolution, he might have been the first settler of the 
United States ; but the weather, the dangers of the 
coast, and the restless temper of his crews, all con- 
spired against him. Deserted by two of his cap- 
tains and many of his men, he was obliged to leave 
one ship behind ; and himself commanding one of 
his barques, the Squirrel, he steered southward with 
it and two of his remaining ships. They were soon 
entangled amongst shoals and shallows ; and losing 
one ship with almost all its crew, including the 
" mineral man" and the Hungarian scholar, Gilbert 
was forced, most unwillingly, to turn his course 
homeward. His own little barque was ill suited 
for the violence of the open sea ; but he would not 
forsake his comrades. On the voyage the storms 
grew " more outrageous," and he was pressed to 
come on board the larger vessel. " We are as near 
to heaven by sea as by land," was the answer of the 
gallant man. But he could not save the crew he 
would not leave. That same night, as he led the 
way, his companions in the larger vessels saw the 

1 Harris. 



16 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

lights of his barque suddenly extinguished : she had 
sunk utterly with all on board. 

Disappointment could not damp the spirit which 
was kindled, and Gilbert found a w T orthy successor 
in his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. In the fol- 
lowing March (1584) he obtained a patent, and sent 
forth two well-appointed vessels, which sailed at once 
to the coast of Carolina. Raleigh was too much en- 
gaged at court to lead the expedition; and his com- 
manders, who seem to have been men of no mark, 
only landed to take possession of the soil, and then 
returned to spread abroad in England the fame of 
the paradise which they had seen. 

Charmed with these descriptions, Elizabeth be- 
stowed upon the new country, as a record of herself, 
the title of Virginia ; and Raleigh sent out, in the 
following year, seven vessels, manned with more 
than 100 colonists. But again the incapacity of their 
commanders disappointed all his hopes. The re- 
sources of the expedition were wasted in a fruitless 
search for mines of gold,- until, at length, fifteen men 
being left behind to guard the island of Roanoke, on 
the shores of what is now known as North Carolina, 
the rest of the intended colony returned to England. 
Amongst these were some who had noted carefully 
the natural advantages of the country they had visited, 
and their report kept alive the spirit of adventure. 
It is not a little curious to review their discoveries. 
One of them was the value of the tuberous roots of 
the potatoe ; and another is thus stated by Thomas 



raleigh's Virginian settlement. 17 

Hariot, " a man of learning, and a very observing 
person, a domestick of Sir Walter's, and highly in 
his patron's friendship." — "There is an herb which 
is sowed apart by itself, and is called by the natives 
uppowoc. The leaves thereof being dried and brought 
into powder, they use to take the fume or smoke 
thereof by sucking it through pipes made of clay, 
into their stomach and head : from whence it purgeth 
superflueous fleame, and other grosse humores, and 
openeth all the pores of the body ; . . . . wherby 
their bodies are notably preserved in health. This 
uppowoc is of so precious estimation amongst them, 
that they thinke their gods are marvellously delight- 
ed therewith ; whereupon sometime they make hal- 
lowed fires, and cast some of the powder thereon for 
a sacrifice : being in a storme upon the waters, to 
pacify their gods they caste some therein and unto 
the aire ; also, after an escape of danger, they cast 
some into the aire likewise : but all done with 
strange gestures, stamping, sometime dancing, clap- 
ping of hands, holding up of hands, and staring up 
into the heavens, uttering therewithall and chatter- 
ing strange words and noises. We ourselves, during 
the time we were there, used to sucke it after their 
manner, as also since our returne, and have found 
many rare and wonderfull experiments of the ver- 
tues thereof: of which the relation would require 
a volume by itselfe : the use of it by so many of 
late, men and women of great calling, as els, and 
c 2 



18 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

some learned physicians also, is sufficient wit- 
nesse." 1 

One result followed from this voyage. Raleigh 
learned from it to look to agricultural produce as the 
staple of his intended colony. In the next spring a 
fleet of transports sailed, carrying out a numerous 
band of emigrants, who, with their wives and fami- 
lies, adventured themselves to settle in this new 
world. They landed upon the island of Roanoke, 
where, as an evil omen, they found nothing but the 
scattered bones of their unhappy predecessors. There, 
however, they founded the city of Raleigh ; and here 
was born the first Anglo-American, the grand-daughter 
of Raleigh's governor ; Virginia Dare. 2 

But America w T as not as yet to be tenanted by 
the Anglo-Saxon race. As the summer closed, the 
colonists looked homeward with anxious longing, 
and began to fear that they had been forgotten. By 
passionate entreaties they forced their governor to 
an unwilling return on their behalf. He found Eng- 

1 Hackluyt, vol. iii. p. 331. Hariot. " It is related," says 
the historian of Virginia, " that a country servant of Sir Wal- 
ter's bringing him a tankard of ale into his study as he was 
intently engaged at his book, smoking a pipe of tobacco, the 
fellow was so frightened at seeing the smoke reek out of his 
mouth, that he threw the ale into his face in order to extinguish 
the fire, and ran down stairs alarming the family, and crying 
out his master was on fire; and, before they could get up, 
would be burnt to ashes." 

2 Stith's History of Virginia. 



TREATMENT OF RALEIGH. 19 

land gathering up her energies to repel the invincible 
armada. All communication with the new colony 
was for a season suspended ; and when the storm 
had cleared away, and Raleigh sent again to visit his 
settlement, no trace of the unhappy settlers could be 
found. Six times, with decreasing hopes, but with 
unconquered resolution, did this great man despatch 
expeditions on the same errand, till his fortune was 
expended in the fruitless search. With the accession 
of King James in 1603, fresh misfortunes crowded 
upon his declining years. On a charge of intending 
to change the succession to the crown, he was tried 
for high treason on most improbable evidence, con- 
victed, and condemned to die. This sentence was 
not then executed ; but for twelve years, in spite of 
the friendship of Prince Henry, who indignantly de- 
clared that " no king but his father would keep such 
a bird in a cage," he was left to linger in the Tower. 
In 1616 he was discharged ; and, still bent upon his 
old plans, he sacrificed all his remaining property, 
even to his plate, to fit out one more expedition to 
the west. Its issue was altogether disastrous. He 
lost all that he had adventured ; and, far beyond all 
other losses, he saw his eldest son fall during its 
course. A letter to his wife after this event strikingly 
displays his character: — "I was loth to write," he 
says, " because I know not how to comfort you ; 
and God knows I never knew what sorrow meant 
till now. All that I can say to you is, that you 
must obey the will and providence of God, and re- 



20 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

member that the Queen's majesty bore the loss of 
Prince Henry with a magnanimous heart. Comfort 
your heart, dearest Bess ; I shall sorrow for us both ; 
and I shall sorrow the less because I have not long 
to sorrow, because not long to live. The Lord bless 
and comfort you, that you may bear patiently the 
death of your most valiant son." 

The prediction which closed this letter did not 
wait long for its fulfilment. He was arrested im- 
mediately on landing, and first accused of exceeding 
his commission in this voyage. This pretext, how- 
ever, proved too shallow to justify his execution : 
and as nothing less would satisfy his enemies, his 
old sentence was revived, and under that he suffered 
publicly, October 29, 1618. 

But the great work in which he had been a 
pioneer was now about to be accomplished. The 
various expeditions he had manned kept up a con- 
stant intercourse between America and England ; 
and in 1606, a new company applied for and ob- 
tained from James I. a charter for the settling of 
Virginia. The names of two knights, several gen- 
tlemen, and Richard Hackluyt, clerk, prebendary of 
Westminster, appear in this document. 

This design included the establishment of a 
northern and southern colony ; and amidst " the 
articles, instructions, and orders" of the charter, 
provision was made for the due carrying out of that 
which is the highest end of every Christian colony. 
For it is expressly ordered, that " the said pre- 



CHARTER OF JAMES I. 21 

sidents, councils, and ministers should provide that 
the true word and service of God be preached, 
planted, and used, according to the rites and doc- 
trine of the Church of England, not only in the said 
colonies, but also, as much as might be, amongst the 
savages bordering upon them ;" and " that all per- 
sons should kindly treat the savage and heathen 
people in those parts, and use all proper means to 
draw them to the true service and knowledge of 
God." 1 

This expedition sailed upon the 19th of Decem- 
ber, 1606, and reached Cape Henry, in Virginia, on 
the 26th of April, 1607* Their voyage had been 
tedious and dangerous ; and would have been abso- 
lutely ruined by internal disagreement, but for the 
healing influence of the Rev. Robert Hunt, a priest 
of the English Church, who, as their first chaplain, 
accompanied the expedition. Happy were they in 
the choice of this good man, who went forth to the 
strange land with all the zeal and earnestness of 
apostolic times. " Six weekes," says one of the 
party, 2 " wee were kept in sight of England by un- 
prosperous winds ; all which time Mr. Hunt, our 
preacher, was so weake and sicke that few expected 
his recoverie : yet although wee were but ten or 
twelve miles from his habitation (the time wee were 
in the Downes), and notwithstanding the stormy 
weather, nor the scandalous imputation (of some 

1 Stith, b. ii. pp. 37, 40. 

- Purchas's Pilgrims, p. 1705. 



22 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

few, little better than atheists, of the greatest rank 
amongst us) suggested against him, all this could 
never force from him so much as a seeming desire 
to leave the businesse, but preferred the service of 
God, in so good a voyage, before any affection to 
contest with his godlesse foes, whose disastrous de- 
signs had even then overthrowne the businesse, had 
he not, with the water of patience and his godly 
exhortations (but chiefly by his true devoted ex- 
ample), quenched these flames of envy and dissen- 
sion." 

Fresh troubles broke out in the little band as 
soon as they arrived, when again his influence alone 
healed the division ; and he had the joy of admi- 
nistering the holy eucharist to the united company 
upon the 14th of May, 1607, the day after their 
first landing. Here, on a peninsula, upon the north- 
ern shore of James River, was sown the first seed 
of Englishmen, who were in after years to grow and 
multiply into the great and numerous American 
people. It was an omen for good, that almost their 
first act on reaching land was to offer unto God 
this appointed " sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiv- 
ing ; " and that amongst the first humble reed- 
thatched houses in which, under the name of James 
Town, they found shelter for themselves, they at 
once erected one to be the church and temple of 
the rising settlement. 

On their first landing every thing smiled around 
them. They " found a country which might claim 



EARLIEST SETTLEMENT. 23 

the prerogative over trie most pleasant places in the 
known world, for large and majestic navigable ri- 
vers ; for beautiful mountains, hills, plains, vallies ; 
rivulets and brooks gurgling down and running most 
pleasantly into a fair bay, encompassed on all sides, 
except at the mouth, with such fruitful and delight- 
ful land. Heaven and earth seemed never to have 
agreed better to frame a place for man's commo- 
dious and delightful habitation, were it fully culti- 
vated and inhabited by industrious people." l 

But this bright morning was soon clouded over ; 
and the first years of the colony were, as is com- 
monly the case, years of discouragement and sorrow. 
All the forms of suffering pressed on them in turn. 
Their Indian neighbours slew many by treachery ; 
they were often disunited among themselves ; they 
depended for subsistence on the supplies of food 
they could obtain from home, and from the neigh- 
bouring tribes, — so that any failure here (and fail- 
ures were frequent) threw them at once into the mi- 
series of famine : upon this disease followed hard, 
until at times almost all the population was mowed 
down. " Unwholesome water," says George Percy, 
brother of the Earl of Northumberland, himself one 
of the sufferers, " was our drink ; our lodgings, cas- 
tles in the air." Within ten days of the ships leav- 
ing them, the colonists " fell into such violent sick- 
ness that scarce ten amongst them could either go 

1 Stith, b. ii. p. 48. 



24 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



or stand." 1 Half of those who had been left pe- 
rished before the setting in of winter. 

The fate of the colony seemed to hang upon one 
man. In spite of the bitterest envy, the merits of 
Captain Smith raised him to supreme command ; 
and he alone was equal to the great emergencies of 
every day. His early life- had fitted him for daring 
deeds. Trained in the war in which the Low Coun- 
tries fought, for freedom and their faith, against the 
power of Spain, he had afterwards maintained the 
borders of Christendom against the Turks in Hun- 
gary. Being taken prisoner in a skirmish, he was 
sold into slavery ; sent first to Constantinople, and 
thence, with a merciful intention, to the Crimea. 
Here being sorely oppressed by those who were 
charged to protect him, he escaped after a desperate 
encounter with his guards, and passed on horseback 
through the skirts of Russia to his old Hungarian 
quarters. We find him next in northern Africa, 
whence he returned to England in time to cast him- 
self into the current which was then sweeping the 
most daring spirits to the unknown regions of the 
New World. In the sufferings and dangers of this 
expedition his courage never failed. He made ex- 
cursions amongst the neighbouring tribes of Indians ; 
he obtained supplies of food ; defeated hostile at- 
tacks ; sank, or threatened to sink, the barque in 
which the trembling handful of remaining colonists 

1 Stith, b. ii. p. 47. 2 Bancroft's America. 



ROBERT HUNT. 25 

would otherwise have attempted a shameful and im- 
possible return ; and was the great instrument of 
planting the English race in that reluctant but at 
length prolific soil. 

In all his trials he was supported by the zealous 
aid of the admirable Hunt, whose patient meekness 
disarmed all opposition, whilst his cheerful faith was 
a bright example to the colony. Amidst its severest 
sufferings, it is cheering to find the minister of Christ 
in that far land repeating those lessons by which his 
forerunners in the holy office had so often kept alive 
the first faint sparks of social life. With unwearied 
patience he maintained the sinking spirits of his flock 
by the mighty influence of Christian truth, of which 
he gave a bright example in his own active faith 
and cheerful patience. Thus when, in a fire which 
destroved their rising town, " the good Mr. Hunt 
lost all his library, w r ith every thing else that he 
had, except the clothes on his back, yet no one ever 
heard him murmur or repine at it." 1 He seems 
to have entered on the work as one wdrich, in the 
language of the first royal charter, " may, by the 
providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the 
glory of His divine Majesty, in propagating the 
Christian religion to such people as yet live in dark- 
ness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge 
and worship of God." 2 When this good man died, 

1 Stith, b. ii. p. 59. 

2 Hansard's State Papers, quote in Hawks's Virginia, 
P- 19- 



26 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

we know not ; it is merely recorded that he left his 
bones in that land of England's after -inheritance. 
But amongst the earliest settlers his mantle fell on 
others of like spirit. In the year 1610, after a pe- 
riod of the sorest famine, " remembered for many 
years by the name of the starving time," 1 the 
few whom hunger and disease had spared resolved 
to quit for ever this unpropitious country. They 
embarked with all they had in four small vessels, — 
" none dropped a tear, for none had enjoyed one 
day of happiness ;" and had already fallen down 
the river with the tide, when they descried the long- 
boat of Lord Delaware, who, with three ships, and a 
new commission, had arrived at that precise moment 
for their rescue. 

He carried back the fainting settlers to their 
abandoned town, and again took possession of the 
land with the offices of our holy faith. Hunt w T as no 
more : but the new governor was happily attended 
by a chaplain ; and his were the first services called 
for by Lord Delaware. " He cast anchor," says one 
of the new-comers, " before James Towne, where we 
landed; and our much-grieved governor, first visit- 
ing the church, caused the bell to be rung ; at which 
all such as were able to come forth of their houses 
repayred to church, which was neatly trimmed with 
the wild flowers of the country, where our minister, 
Master Bucke, made a zealous and sorrowful prayer, 

1 Stith, b. iii. p. 117 



POCOHONTAS. 27 

finding all things so contrary to our expectations, 
and full of misery and misgovernment." 1 

Bucke was fixed at James Town ; and when, 
after a few years, the colony had so far taken root 
as to have spread itself into the neighbouring town 
of Henrico, he was joined by Mr. Whitaker (son of 
the celebrated Dr. W. Whitaker, master of St. John's 
College, Cambridge), who was established " in a 
handsome church," 2 which, through the zeal of the 
settlers, was one of the first buildings raised. Whit- 
aker was no unworthy successor of Hunt. By the 
saint-like Nicholas Ferrar, his contemporary, he was 
honoured with the title of " apostle of Virginia." 
" I hereby let all men know," writes W. Crashaw, 3 
in 1613, " that a scholar, a graduate, a preacher, well 
borne and friended in England ; not in debt nor dis- 
grace, but competently provided for, and liked and 
beloved where he lived ; not in want, but (for a 
scholar and as these days be) rich in possession, and 
more in possibility, of himself, without any persua- 
sion (but God's and his own heart's), did voluntarily 
leave his warm nest, and, to the wonder of his kin- 
dred, and amazement of them that knew him, under- 
take this hard, but, in my judgment, her oi call reso- 
lution to go to Virginia, and helpe to beare the name 
of God unto the Gentiles." 

With the name of Whitaker is joined the romantic 

1 Purchas's Pilgrims, b. ix. c. 6. 

2 Hawks's Virginia, p. 28. 

3 Quoted in Hawks's Virginia, p. 28. 



28 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

story of the first Indian convert, whom he baptised 
into the Church of Christ. Pocohontas, the favou- 
rite daughter of Powhatan, the most powerful Indian 
chieftain of those parts, then a girl of twelve years 
old, saved from barbarous murder Captain Smith, 
the early hero of this colony? whilst a prisoner at her 
father's court. For years she remained the white 
man's constant friend and advocate ; and even dared 
to visit, on more than one errand of mercy, the new 
settlement of James Town. After Captain Smith's 
removal from Virginia, Pocohontas was ensnared by 
treachery, and brought a prisoner to the English fort. 
But her captivity was turned into a blessing. She 
received the faith of Christ ; and was not only the 
first, but one of the most hopeful of the whole band 
of native converts. Her after-life was strange. She 
formed a marriage of mutual affection with an English 
settler of good birth ; who, after a time, visited his 
native land, taking with him to its shores his Indian 
wife and child. She was received with due respect 
in England; visited the English court (where her 
husband bore the frowns of the royal pedant James I. 
for having dared to intermarry with a princess); and, 
after winning the goodwill of all, just on the eve of 
her return, died at Grave send, aged 22, in the faith 
of Jesus. "What would have been the emotions," 
well asks the ecclesiastical historian of Virginia, " of 
the devoted missionary, when he admitted Poco- 
hontas to baptism, could he have foreseen that, after 
the lapse of more than two hundred years, the blood 



EARLY LAWS. 29 

of this noble-hearted Indian maiden would be flow- 
ing in the veins of some of the most distinguished 
members of that Church, the foundations of which 
he was then laying I" 1 

But though thus happy in her early clergy, it 
must not be supposed that the infant Church of Vir- 
ginia flourished without many a drawback. The 
mass of those who flock to such a settlement will 
ever be, like David's followers in the desert, men of 
broken fortunes and ungoverned habits : the bonds 
of society are loose ; strong temptations abound ; 
and there will be much that must rebel not only 
against morals and religion, but even against civil 
rule. So it was in this case ; and to such a pitch, at 
one time, had this insubordination risen, that but for 
the governor's proclaiming martial law, the whole 
society had perished through internal strife. 

This code of law may still be seen ; and, as is 
implied in its title — " Lawes divine, morall, and 
martial], for Virginia" — it enforced obedience to the 
faith of Christ, as the foundation of all relative obli- 
gations. There can be little doubt that, in that stage 
of society, these laws (the harsh penalties attached to 
which never were enforced) proved a great blessing 
to the colony, and prepared it for better days. 

1 Dr. Hawks's Memorials of the Church in Virginia, p. 28. 



D 2 



CHAPTER II. 

from 1620 to 1GSS. 

Virginian Company— Measures of Sir E. Sandys. Nicholas Ferrar, and 
others— Churches endowed — College founded— Mr. Thorpe — Indian 
massacre — Indian conquest — Effects of the massacre — Virginia in 
the Great Rebellion — Loyalty — Love of the Church — Effects of 
Puritan rule— King Charles II. proclaimed— Enactments of Legis- 
lature in behalf of the Church— Popish plots suspected. 

It was the great happiness of Virginia, that the com- 
pany who managed its affairs contained at this time 
men who looked far beyond direct commercial profit. 
Amongst these should be especially remembered the 
names of Sir Edwin Sandys, son of the Archbishop 
of York, and pupil of Richard Hooker, and of Mr. 
Nicholas Ferrar ; } who composed all their letters and 
instructions to their servants. These, and the rest 
who acted with them, earnestly desired to make the 
rising colony indeed an outpost of the faith. 

For this end, they endeavoured to raise its in- 
ternal character : and many were their schemes with 
this intent. Their first care was to provide a more 
settled population, by promoting female emigration 

1 See Walton's Life of R. Hooker ; and Memoir of Nicholas 
Ferrar bv Rev. T. M. Macdonondi. 



VIRGINIAN COMPANY. 31 

and colonial marriages. They laid the foundation of 
a college for the reception both of the English and 
Indian youth ; they set apart 10,000 acres for its 
permanent support, and collected large sums of 
money, both by a king's letter and from private cha- 
rity, to furnish endowments for a body of professors; 
and in a new charter which they now sent out, they 
provided for the settled maintenance of the colonial 
clergy. Nor were the settlers backward in the like 
endeavours. In the year 1619, when Sir Thomas 
Yeardley entered on the government, he called to- 
gether the first representative legislature of Virginia. 
One of the early enactments of this body fixed the 
payment of their clergy at 200/. worth of corn and 
tobacco, 1 their principal productions. One hundred 
acres were marked off for glebes in every borough, 
for each of which the company at home provided 
six tenants at the public cost. They applied to the 
Bishop of London to find for them a body of " pious, 
learned, and painful ministers ;"— a charitable work 
in which he readily engaged. 

Many large-hearted Christians helped on these ' 
good beginnings. The Bishop of London 2 raised 
1000/. towards the expenses of their infant college; 
an unknown benefactor sent 500/. more, to be laid 
out in instructing the young Indians in the faith of 
Christ. Money to be spent in building churches, 
and providing communion-plate for those already 

1 Stith, b. iii. p. 173. 2 Bp. King. 



32 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

built, flowed in from other quarters. An exemplary 
zeal appears in all the dealings of the company. 
They impressed upon their governors that they 
" should take into their especial regard the service 
of Almighty God, and the observance of His divine 
laws ; and that the people should be trained up in 
true religion and virtue." They urged them " to 
employ their utmost care to advance all things ap- 
pertaining to the order and administration of divine 
service according to the form and discipline of the 
Church of England, carefully avoiding all factious 
and needless novelties, which only tend to the dis- 
turbance of peace and unity/' 

They besought them " to use all probable means 
of bringing over the natives to the knowledge of 
God and His true religion ; to which purpose, the 
example given by the English in their own persons 
and families will be of singular and chief moment. 55 
They suggest to them that " it will be proper to 
draw the best disposed amongst the Indians to con- 
verse and labour with our people for a convenient 
reward, that thereby, being reconciled to a civil way 
of life, and brought to a sense of God and religion, 
they might afterwards become instruments in the 
general conversion of their countrymen, so much 
desired ; that each town, borough, and hundred, 
ought to procure, by just means, a certain number 
of children to be brought up ; that the most towardly 
of these should be fitted for the college. In all 
which pious work they earnestly require help and 



INDIAN 3IASSACRE. 33 

furtherance, not doubting the particular blessing of 
God upon the colony." 1 

All these good beginnings were advancing in the 
settlement. The headship of the college was ac- 
cepted by an exemplary man, Mr. George Thorpe, 
of good parts and breeding, (he had been of the king's 
bedchamber in England), from an earnest desire of 
helping-on the conversion of the Indians. His heart 
was given to this work, and he sought to further it 
in every way. He visited the Indian chiefs at their 
own haunts, to win them over to the faith of Christ ; 
and he was ever watching in the colony to remove 
every ground of quarrel or offence. 

The general treatment of the Indian race was 
mild and friendly. The settlers' houses and tables 
were open to them ; they often slept under the white 
men's roofs, and freely used the boats which they 
had built upon the various creeks and rivers. The 
two races promised to blend peaceably together ; 
whilst Mr. Thorpe and his Christian coadjutors 
looked gladly forward to the day when, by these 
Indian tribes, the knowledge of salvation should be 
spread through all the Western world. 

Yet in the midst of this apparent calm there was 
secretly arising one of those fearful hurricanes to 
which the neighbourhood of Indian life has always 
been exposed. The red tribes, whose extreme sim- 
plicity and seeming mildness had led the English to 

1 Stith, b. iv. pp. 194, 195. 



34 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

lay aside the commonest precautions, were forming 
secretly a wide-spread plot to rid their land at one 
blow of the strangers, whose increasing numbers 
seemed to make immediate action needful. 

With that deathlike stillness of preparation which 
aggravates so fearfully the murderous onset of savage 
warfare, the Indians sprang at once upon the whole 
slumbering colony. Neither age nor sex, character 
nor station, acts of kindness past or present, turned 
aside in a single instance the knife or hatchet of the 
savage. Mr. Thorpe was slain and mangled in the 
midst of his confiding labours ; and, within an hour, 
34:7 men, women, and children, were left bleeding 
and dismembered corpses. Yet, terrible as this blow 
was, it would have been far more fatal but for the 
conduct of one Indian convert. His chief sent to 
him the general order, bidding him slay upon the 
morrow his unsuspecting master ; but obedience to 
the laws of clanship yielded, in the heart of the 
Christian Indian, to a higher obligation. As soon 
as the messenger, his own brother, had departed, he 
rose and warned his master of the meditated trea- 
chery ; thus enabling him not only to preserve his 
own house, but to prepare the inhabitants of James 
Town to expect and to resist the blow. The Indians, 
finding their attack suspected, retreated from the 
town, and the great mass of colonists escaped. The 
conversion of one native man had saved the English 
settlement. 

Yet their miseries were not over. The affrighted 



SUFFERINGS OF THE COLONISTS. 35 

colonists fled to the shelter of James Town, where 
famine soon visited their crowded ranks. "When the 
storm had passed away, the whole face of the settle- 
ment was changed. Of " eighty plantations which 
were advancing to completion, eight only remained ; 
and of twenty-nine hundred and sixty inhabitants, 
eighteen hundred were all that were left." 1 

Still the blow had been averted ; the colony 
was saved ; and its loss was soon repaired by rein- 
forcements from the mother country. But lasting 
evil had been done ; a spirit of deadly hostility 
sprang up between the white men and the Indians. 
To overawe all whom they did not exterminate was 
now their settled policy ; and all thoughts of the 
college, with its promise of mercy, was wholly laid 
aside for years. 

Some of the first records of the reviving colony 
are of a happier character. The first seven laws 
(amongst thirty-five) passed two years afterwards, 
provide for the interests of religion. They require 
the erection of a house of worship, and the separa- 
tion of a burial-ground, on every plantation ; they 
enforce the attendance of the colonists at public 
worship; provide for uniformity of faith and worship 
with the English Church; prescribe the observance 
of her holydays, and of a yearly fast upon the anni- 
versary of the massacre ; and enjoin respectful treat- 
ment and the payment of a settled stipend to the 
colonial clergy. 

1 Hawks's Virginia, b. iv. p. 1. 



36 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

This was almost the last act of the legislature of 
Virginia whilst it continued under its early charters. 
Two years afterwards (in 1624) the crown resumed 
its grant, and the settlement became a royal colony. 
Although this change, which transferred the manage- 
ment of its affairs from the hands of Sandys and 
Ferrar to the interested courtiers of King James, 
had no doubt an influence upon the spiritual interests 
of the colony, and especially upon its missionary 
character, yet it produced no direct alteration in re- 
ligious matters. The laws of the succeeding period 
continued to enforce the observance of the same 
duties ; and though their distance saved the colo- 
nists from that full severity of rule with which mat- 
ters were administered at home by the Court of High 
Commission, yet its decisions were acknowledged as 
authority, and the harsh tone which was now unhap- 
pily assumed in England, was felt even in Virginia. 
At the same time, the temper of the colony was far 
different from that which was spreading at home. 
Without much warmth of religion, the attachment of 
the people to their fathers' Church was general and 
decided. An attempt made from without to gather a 
congregation of the Independent character, met with 
but small support, and was easily suppressed by the 
authorities. 1 The Puritan writers complain, in their 
peculiar language, that the governor was " a courtier, 
and very malignant to the way of the Churches ;" but 

1 Leah and Rachell, or the two fruitful Sisters of Virginia 
and Maryland. 1656. Quoted by Dr. Hawks. 



VIRGIXIA IN THE GREAT REBELLION. 37 

the whole temper of the colony was with him ; and 
when the humours of the mother- country broke out 
into the great rebellion, Virginia continued loyal. 
In dissenting New England, all were fully satisfied 
that the battles which Cromwell had fought at home 
were the battles of the Lord; and " the spirits of 
the brethren were carried forth in faithful and af- 
fectionate prayers in his behalf." 1 But with this 
state of feeling Virginia had no sympathy. The 
expatriated cavaliers fled to her as a refuge ; and 
with a population now multiplied to 20,000, she re- 
sisted Cromwell's arms. The terms on which she 
at length capitulated to superior numbers shew the 
true grounds of her resolute fidelity; for she stipu- 
lates for " the use of the Booke of Common Prayer 
for one yeare ensuing, the continuance of ministers 
in their places, and the payment of their accustomed 
dues and agreements." 2 Nor did the success of the 
Puritans alter these leading features, though it raised 
one of their body to the seat of governor, and spread 
a few of his adherents through the land. The chief 
evil which flowed from it was the growth of uncon- 
cern about religion. " Many places" became " des- 
titute of ministers, through the people ceasing to pay 
their accustomed dues, and manifesting great negli- 
gence in procuring religious instruction." 3 

But the Independent form of worship found no 

1 Bancroft's United States, vol. i. p. 445. 

2 Herring's Virginia, — Statutes at large, p. 362. 

3 Ibid. p. 378. 

E 



38 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

favour in the colony. It is described by a contem- 
porary as " bearing a great love to the stated con- 
stitutions of the Church of England, in her govern- 
ment and public worship, which gave us (who went 
thither under the late persecutions of it) the advan- 
tage of liberty to use it constantly amongst them, 
after the naval force had reduced the colony under 
the power (but never to the obedience) of the 
usurpers." 1 

Through the whole period of the great rebellion 
such remained the temper of Virginia. Eight years 
after his deposition, Sir W. Berkeley, the ex-governor, 
was still lingering in the colony, and opening " his 
purse and his house to all the royal party, who made 
Virginia their refuge." 2 When a felon convict, 3 who 
had escaped from justice, was employed by Cromwell, 
in the neighbouring state of Maryland, " in the holy 
work of rooting out the abominations of popery and 
prelacy," Virginia fearlessly sheltered his victims, in 
defiance of the usurper's censure of " the presump- 
tion and impiety of her interference." Sixteen 
months before the king was restored at home, he 
was proclaimed in Virginia ; 4 and amongst the ear- 
liest business brought before the colonial legislature, 
when it re-assembled under the royal commission, 
was the revival of the Church. This had already 
suffered greatly : of fifty parishes, into which the 

1 Virginia's Cure, p. 22. quoted by Dr. Hawks. 

2 Churchill's Journal of Norwood, in Voyages, vol. vi. 

3 2 Burk, 113, by the same. 4 Ibid. p. 118. 



VIRGINIA IN THE GREAT REBELLION. 39 

colony was now divided, the greater number wanted 
alike glebe, parsonage, church, and minister, as there 
were not above ten clergymen remaining. The first 
article in the instructions furnished to Sir W. Berkeley, 
the royal governor, recommended " the duties of 
religion, the use of the Book of Common Prayer, 
the decent repairs of churches, and a competent 
provision for conforming ministers." 1 These sug- 
gestions were acted on at once by the colonial legis- 
lature. Provision was made for the building and 
due furniture of churches ; for the canonical per- 
formance of the Liturgy ; for the ministration of 
God's word ; for a due observance of the Sunday ; 
for the baptism and Christian education of the young. 
" These," says the Virginian Statute-Book, 2 " among 
many other blessings, God Almighty hath vouch- 
safed to increase" into " a very numerous generation 
of Christian children born in Virginia, who naturally 
are of beautiful and comely persons, and generally 
of more ingenious spirits than those of England." 3 

With these provisions the Church and religious 
matters were again established on their ancient basis, 
and proceeded as before ; though, in the next few 
years, the general outlines of ecclesiastical affairs 
at home may be traced by their reproduction in the 
colony, 

Strict enactments against non-conformists, then 

1 2 Burk, 124, in Hawks's Virginia, p. 65. 

2 Hening, vol. i. p. 336. 

3 Virginia's Cure, p. 5, quoted in Bancroft's United States. 



40 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

deemed necessary to prevent political disturbance, 
marked its beginning ; and were followed, under 
James II., by fears of popish innovation. The Pa- 
pists and the Indians were believed to be in secret 
league against the colony ; and, in spite of all her 
loyalty, Virginia hailed, with no less joy than eager 
Protestants at home, the accession of King William 
and Queen Mary. 



CHAPTER III. 

from 1608 to 1688. 

Neighbouring colonies— New York — New Jersey — Philadelphia — Ca- 
rolina — Maryland — New England — Its settlement— Rise of Puritan- 
ism in England — Emigration, to Leyden, to New England — Piety 
of the early Puritans— Their hatred of Church-principles— Severity 
— Treatment of Indians— Proselyting spirit towards other commu- 
nions. 

Hitherto the thread of our history has run along 
almost entirely with that of the single colony of 
Virginia. But from this time we must include in 
our notice many of her sister settlements : and for 
this purpose it will be convenient to survey their 
religious posture at this time, and from their first 
beginning. 

Very different now was the condition of that great 
western continent from its state when the first settlers 
in Virginia landed on its shores. Then, in all the great 
wilderness around them, the Lord of heaven was an 
unknown God. The echoes of its vast forests had 
never yet awoke to the name of Christ ; the whole 
expanse was only dotted here and there by the scat- 
tered wigwams and hunting-lodges of the savage 
Indians. But now, along the whole coast, and con- 
tinually more and more inland, a busy swarming 
people, bearing the Christian name, were overspread- 
e 2 



42 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ing all its extent, and driving back before them the 
retiring wave of Indian life. 

Some of these settlements had been formed but 
little later than Virginia, though under a widely dif- 
ferent religious influence. 

Thus the district of Pennsylvania had been 
settled in 1608, one year after Virginia, by the 
Dutch, assisted by some Swedish emigrants, who 
seated themselves at New York and New Jersey, 
and long held possession of them. For, though the 
English laid claim, as first discoverers, to the whole 
northern continent, it was not till 1664 that the 
Dutch governor surrendered to the summons of Sir 
R. Cave, and transferred to English rule the city of 
New Amsterdam, which, with its change of rulers, 
changed also its name, and became thenceforth New 
York. Here, therefore, were established the religi- 
ous rites and usages of the Dutch and Swedish pres- 
byterian worship. 

In 1683 a different element was largely intro- 
duced, when Newcastle Town, with twelve miles of 
the surrounding country, was sold by the Duke of 
York, to whom it had been granted by the crown, 
to William Penn, who built the town of Philadel- 
phia, and peopled it with quakers. 

Thirteen years before (in 1670), Carolina had 
been granted by King Charles II. to Lord Berkeley 
and others, who established there a constitution, drawn 
up by the famous John Locke ; which, with many 
more peculiarities, professed to establish perfect re- 



POPISH DARKNESS. 43 

ligious equality amongst all sects, only requiring that 
each stripling of seventeen should select one for him- 
self, and publicly enroll himself amongst its members. 

Bordering directly on Virginia, Maryland was 
settled, in 1633, by about two hundred English 
families, of Roman Catholic tenets, under the direc- 
tion of Lord Baltimore, and soon grew into a flou- 
rishing community ; in which, whilst all who professed 
the faith of Jesus Christ were allowed the free exer- 
cise of their religion, Romanism was long the domi- 
nant belief. So fully had the unhappy religious 
feuds of Christendom been borne across the" Atlantic, 
to seed with fresh divisions the new world which lay 
outspread before the Christian settlers. 

But of all these colonies, the most important, 
under every aspect, were those which had peopled 
the extensive district known, from their occupation, 
by the title of New England. This was the great 
seed-plot of division in religion ; and the history of 
its foundation will, therefore, require a more detailed 
and particular account. 

Its first settlement was the consequence of re- 
ligious troubles at home. The curse of popery had 
long lain heavy upon England ; and had eaten out in 
great measure the very life of Christianity amongst 
us. It was " as with the people so with the priest ;" 
or rather, the evil had begun with the priest, and had 
gone down to the people. When we look into the 
religious history of that period, we should almost 
conclude that, with some few noble exceptions, in 



44 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

which the absolute deadness of the system in which 
he was set, forced the saint out of all system into a 
direct commerce with the unseen world, Christianity 
had, in the mass of cases, become a great scheme of 
formality. The withholding of God's word from the 
people, the denial of the master truth of our being 
justified by faith only, and, above all, the robbing 
men of the presence of their only Saviour, by putting 
in His place those outward institutions which were 
intended to be signs and means of His true near- 
ness to them, — all this had wrought fearfully amongst 
us ; and though, through God's goodness, there was 
doubtless underneath this frozen surface some hidden 
life kept here and there in being, yet, for the most 
part, formality had chilled it utterly. There was 
no dealing with the consciences of men ; no treating 
them as individual souls, each one with the great 
mystery of spiritual life within, which was to be nur- 
tured and perfected ; but empty outward forms were 
all ; and when once that divinely appointed organi- 
sation, which, as the channel of God's living grace, 
was intended to quicken as much as to direct the soul 
of man, was itself thus changed into a set of lifeless 
observances, it could maintain any power at all, only 
by suspending within each of its victims the true 
energies of his own inner being. This, therefore, 
became the object of those worldly-minded men, who 
sought to use Christ's Church as an instrument for 
working out their own earthly ends. And so long 
as men's consciences could be wholly sent to sleep, 



WICKLIFFE. 45 

this scheme was perfect of its kind ; for it stilled the 
cravings of man's soul by the opiate of insensibility ; 
passing over to the priest and the system, that care 
about his own inner self, which is indeed the charge 
of each reasonable being. So long, too, as men 
could be kept in gross ignorance, the fearful starts to 
which a sleeping conscience is subject could be set 
again at rest. There were penances, and indul- 
gences, and remissions, and the showy jugglery of 
outward devotion, all specially directed to this end. 
And so for years had it been in England ; prayers 
in which the heart or even the reason of the wor- 
shipper could take little or no part, had been, for 
the mass of the people, the only allowed attempt at 
approaching God. Formalities and shows, which, 
at the best, addressed themselves to the sensitive 
faculties, these had been the food provided for the 
deep and wonderful spiritual life ; and the reason 
had been abased, until it received the lying legends 
of the day, instead of that word of God which 
" giveth light unto the eyes." 

But so could it be no more after the time of 
WicklifFe. He had spoken words over these slum- 
berers which had broken their charmed sleep. He 
spoke of God, of their need of Him, of the Medi- 
ator between Him and them, of their own inner 
being ; and conscience had awoke, as the words 
reached their understandings. A multitude of men 
began to perceive that they were men ; that they had 
souls, for which they must themselves care ; as to 



46 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

them, above all, they were precious beyond price. 
They began to feel the need of personal religion. 
Strange and often ill-directed were their first efforts 
after it, as are the actions of men who are roused sud- 
denly from a deep sleep ; greatly did they need the 
soothing voice and guiding hand of their appointed 
pastors. But the religious system of the papacy could 
not guide their efforts and satisfy their new-born 
wants. Its whole desire was to crush them. This it 
soon found to be impossible ; for to each one of these 
Lollards there was now revealed a truth, which he held 
as a reality, and which reached down to the very centre 
of his soul. It could not be torn from him ; he must 
be slain first. He could not be made to cease believ- 
ing, or cease feeling. The knowledge of his own 
humanity had flashed upon him ; he could not forget 
it; and it must be dreadful to him, until he could 
find out its true healer. Hence popery strove in 
vain with those who were once infected with this 
new disorder ; and, finding this strife to be hopeless, 
it soon set itself to prevent its spreading, by mark- 
ing out for death or sufferings each one who yielded 
himself up to it. 

This strife went on long before its being was 
proclaimed. Just as knowledge increased, so far 
spread the awakening of conscience ; and whenever 
this awoke, the struggle followed between him in 
whom it woke, and those who sought to keep it 
sleeping. From which there followed always this 
evil consequence, that the man in whom personal 



THE REFORMATION. 47 

religion was but beginning to reveal itself found 
the Church-system under which he lived the great 
enemy of that religion. The priests, who should 
have nourished, instructed, and perfected it, he knew 
only as those who hated, reviled, and endeavoured 
to extinguish it. The religious sympathies, which 
should have clung to the Church-system, and by it 
been raised to a goodly maturity, finding in it no 
sure stay, cast forth their tendrils upon strange sup- 
ports ; thus becoming themselves entangled with 
evil, and separating the personal religion of the man 
from the unity and blessedness of the Church. In 
such a state men soon chose wilfully for themselves, 
as a part of their religion. They rejected ignor- 
antly the greatest truths, from their dread of the 
errors with which they had been mixed. There 
was no blessed truth of Christ's gospel to which 
some deadly delusion had not been wedded ; and 
the just-opening eye, which saw men as trees walk- 
ing, could not nicely distinguish between truth and 
falsehood ; whilst it had been made to loathe as its 
worst enemies those who should have been its guides. 
For more than one hundred and fifty years this 
leaven had been working widely amongst the peo- 
ple, when the outbreak of the Reformation spread 
the ferment through the nation. For a time all 
went on prosperously. The vexed and angry 
minds of men were well satisfied as long as the 
work of demolition proceeded. The obstacles which 
it received in the latter part of Henry's reign 



48 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

came rather from the king than the clergy. The 
bishops were still reformers ; all at least whom the 
people looked to as bishops indeed. Accordingly, 
when Edward the Sixth became king, the work pro- 
ceeded apace. The reformed part of the nation seemed 
to be united ; much was yet to be done before 
religion would be purified ; but upon doing this they 
were agreed amongst themselves. Then came the 
sharp check of Mary's reign, and the strife burnt 
more fiercely than ever ; but still the reformed were 
all gathered on one side, and the popish on the other. 
So it continued while she lived ; but with the 
accession of Elizabeth the whole aspect of the field 
was changed. The Reformation was established ; 
and immediately the evil seed sown heretofore sprung 
up and multiplied. Now was seen the true curse 
with which popery had cursed us, in divorcing the 
religious sympathies of men from that external or- 
ganisation which had been framed by the Lord spe- 
cially to foster them ; in making men judges and 
teachers, because the verv love of truth within them 
had made them fear to be learners and the taught. 
The reformed began to divide amongst themselves. 
The Reformation had lifted up the cover which the 
seal of mystery had heretofore secured, and from the 
opened vessel there issued a spirit, vast, undefined, 
and fearful, on which men looked and trembled ; 
marvelling how it had been held before in such a 
narrow compass, seeing that never again could it be 
charmed into its former quietness. The principle of 



THE REFORMATION. 49 

obedience had been unawares dissolved. Their for- 
mer long separation from Roman errors, in spite of 
authority, had tainted the spirit of many of the best 
of our people, and made them self-choosing schis- 
matics. Each was to judge for himself. The autho- 
rity of the early Church was nothing ; for it was 
confounded with the vile tradition which for so long 
a time had cheated their souls. The succession of 
the priesthood was a lie ; for the lying priests of old 
had claimed it for themselves. The deep need of 
support and sympathy, for which God has graciously 
made provision in the communion of saints, and for 
which the heart of man craves, was wholly forgotten 
in the first fever-heat which waited upon the disco- 
very of individual responsibility and individual sal- 
vation ; and the great twin truths which had been 
wedded together in primitive times, which the hol- 
lowness of the popish system had severed by seeking 
to destroy individual religion, were henceforth, it 
seemed, to strive for the mastery, — as if man's peace 
lay in one destroying the other, and not in the perfect 
harmony of both. 

In such a state was the nation. The spasms 
of convulsion had followed in due course upon the 
numbness of lethargy. All through the reign of 
Elizabeth, society was convulsed by these strug- 
gles. The party which began to be known every 
where under the title of the Puritans professed to 
aim at a more perfect or entire reformation of 
religion. The work, they thought, had been left 

F 



50 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

half done. They were many of them men of true 
and deep piety, whose errors were the natural con- 
sequence of the unhappy influence under which 
their minds had grown and ripened. Their unset- 
tled and unquiet spirits were the legacy which po- 
pery bequeathed us ; " tearing us" when it " hardly 
departed from us." They strove with all the ear- 
nestness of men who had a great reality at stake ; 
it was, as it seemed to them, for the very life of 
their own souls, and of their children's souls, that 
they contended. Yet they strove in ignorance : in 
seeking to do away the errors which had crept over 
them, they would fain have overthrown the institutions 
of Christ Himself. Those who saw this were bound 
to withhold from them that for which they longed. 
And so the old feelings of hostility, which the abuses 
of her Roman garb had kindled, fastened now upon 
the Church reformed. It became again an open 
struggle. Law was on the side of those who were 
defending the existing institutions ; and by the law 
the rights of truth were enforced, In such a temper 
of society it was hard to draw the line at all times 
between persecution and a due resistance to the 
spread of error. The limits of toleration had been 
ascertained by neither party ; and it is no great 
admission to allow that they were now sometimes 
transgressed by the defenders of the Church. Every 
thing, indeed, tended to lead them into such a course ; 
they were maintaining what had clearly stood from 
the first spread of Christianity. The attacks now 



THE PURITANS. 51 

made on this must in their eyes have been manifest 
impiety. They were led on, moreover, by another 
influence. The Puritans were made bad subjects 
by the very same qualities which made them bad 
Churchmen. The secular arm, therefore, was ready 
to strike in its own quarrel, and glad to take advan- 
tage of the first whisper of the cause of religion. It 
w r as not now for toleration simply that the Puritans 
were striving. During their exile in the reign of 
Mary, they had learned all the lessons taught by 
Calvin and John Knox. Their consciences com- 
pelled them, not only to practise themselves what 
they deemed right, but, at all hazards, to enforce 
this practice upon others also. " The Puritans of 
this age," says the gentle Fuller, 1 " were divided 
into two ranks : some mild and moderate, contented 
to enjoy their own conscience ; others fierce and 
fiery, to the disturbance of the Church and State ;" 
" accounting every thing from Rome which was not 
from Geneva, they endeavoured to conform the 
government of the English Church to the presby- 
terian reformation." 

It was Elizabeth's maxim, that the first of these 
classes should be conciliated to the uttermost. And 
hence Cartwright, Travers, and all the great leaders 
of the party, were at this time allowed to act as be- 
neficed or licensed preachers. 

But when " causes of conscience exceed their 

1 Ch. Hist, book ix. p. 76. 



52 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



bounds, and grow to be matters of faction," to use 
the words of Sir F. Walsingham, 1 M the queen judged 
them to ' lose their nature,' and become such that 
they should be distinctly punished, though coloured 
with the pretences of conscience and religion." How 
completely this limit had been reached may easily be 
seen. Five hundred Puritans, " all beneficed in the 
Church of England," and styled by themselves " useful 
preachers," resolved, in 1586, u that since the magis- 
trate could not be induced to reform the discipline 
of the Church, that therefore, after so many years 
waiting, it was lawful to act without him, and intro- 
duce a reformation in the best manner they could." 

The language of their ruder partisans may yet 
be read in the pages of Martin Mar-prelate and 
his fellows. They do not speak the tone of men 
trembling and groaning under dominant oppression : 
" Our bishops," say they, " and proud, popish, 
presumptuous, paltry, pestilent, and pernicious pre- 
lates, are usurpers. They are cogging and cozening 
knaves. The bishops will lie like dogs, impudent, 
shameless, wainscoat-faced bishops. Your fat places 
are anti-Christian; they are limbs of anti-christ," 2 
&c. " Our lord bishops, as John of Canterbury, 
with the rest of such swinish rabble, are petty 
anti-christs, petty popes, proud prelates, enemies to 
the Gospel, and most covetous, wretched priests." 3 

1 Burnet's Hist. Reform, vol. ii. 

2 Strype's Whitgift, vol. i. p. 570. 

3 Ibid. p. 353. 



THE PURITANS. 53 

And the aim of this reviling was openly declared : 
" The Puritan preachers would have all the rem- 
nants and relics of anti-christ banished out of the 
Church, and not so much as a lord bishop (no not 
his grace himself), dumb minister (no, not dumb 
John of London himself), non-resident, archdeacon, 
abbey-lubber, or any such loiterer, tolerated in our 
ministry." 

This is not the language of men seeking tolera- 
tion under religious scruples, but of coarse and open 
assailants of existing institutions. 

Nor was this the mere vulgarity of uneducated 
ribaldry. It is true that there were many better 
men amongst the Puritans ; but it was such tempers 
as these against which the ruling powers were forced 
to take up arms. And these were not the lowest of 
their faction. Martin Mar-prelate, it was known, 
came from their leaders' pens ; and that great intel- 
lect and station could not heal the bitterness of fac- 
tion, may be seen somewhat later in the prose works 
of John Milton himself. With less coarseness of 
tongue, but certainly with no less rancour, he dooms 
the bishops of the English Church, " after a shame- 
ful life in this world, to the darkest and deepest 
gulf of hell ; where, under the despiteful control, the 
trample and spurn, of all the other damned, who in 
the anguish of their torture shall have no other ease 
than to exercise a raving and bestial tyranny over 
them, as their slaves and negroes, they shall remain 
in that plight for ever, the basest, the lowermost, the 
f 2 



54 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

most dejected, most under-foot and down-trodden 
vassals of perdition.'* 1 

It is not, therefore, wonderful if Churchmen, who, 
on their part, had a strong perception of the contrary- 
truth, let the arm of law fall heavily upon those who 
numbered in the ranks of their supporters such trou- 
blesome disputants. The true source of the evil was 
in that former unfaithfulness of those who should 
have been the watchmen and stewards of the Lord, 
which had made the Church hateful, not to infidels, 
because they abhorred religion, but to earnest be- 
lievers, because they loved it, and the memory of 
which made many good men still her enemies, though 
she was now wholly in the right. The points for 
which she contended were the very guards and in- 
struments of the truth ; they could have wounded no 
sound conscience. But " oppression, which maketh 
a wise man mad," had held a long rule ; men's con- 
sciences had become festered and angry, and could 
not bear the light touch of lawful authority. The 
time for the full working of this evil was not indeed 
vet come ; but all through the reign of Elizabeth it 
was gathering strength, and injuring more and more 
the hearts of those whom it infected. In the fol- 
lowing reign it was scarcely repressed by the timid 
watchfulness of James ; and in his son's time it burst 
forth for a while triumphant. Puritanism was then 
seen in its maturity ; and its violence and persecu- 

1 Conclusion of Milton's treatise on Reformation, i. 274. 



PURITANISM. DO 

tion far exceeded any excess of rigour which could 
be charged to the adherents of the contrary side. 
If some meeting-houses had been heretofore sup- 
pressed, we know not of one which, like our cathe- 
drals, was made a stall for horses. If hatred to Pu- 
ritanism sharpened the edge of that sentence which, 
for a malicious libel on the queen, deprived Prynne 
of his ears, 1 Puritanism could not slake its vengeance 
till it beheaded Laud. If Puritans were forced by 
Queen Elizabeth to be present in their parish- church, 
the Parliament of 1645 sentenced to one year's im- 
prisonment any one who for the third time made 
use, publicly or privately, of the Book of Common 
Prayer. But the earlier stages of the struggle are 
those with which we have to do. In the reigns of 
Elizabeth, and James the First, the Puritans strove 
for the mastery in vain ; the law enforced confor- 
mity ; they must attend their parish-church. The 
ministrations of their chosen teachers were impeded. 
The cause of truth, of Christ's Gospel, and of their 
souls, seemed to them in peril ; they looked this way 
and that for deliverance ; they could not rest as they 
were ; they believed that it was unlawful to submit 
to " the base and beggarly ceremonies'' 2 (as they did 
not fear to term them) of the Church of England, 

1 Prynne himself confessed afterwards, that if, when Charles 
took his ears, he had taken his head, he had given him no more 
than his due. 

- MS. History of the Plantation of Plymouth, &c, in the 
Fulham Library. 



56 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

and were therefore bent on bringing in a " reforma- 
tion cut or sbapen after the manner of Embden or 
Geneva." 1 

However mistaken was their zeal, thev <zave 
abundant proof of its sincerity. Finding it impos- 
sible to follow out their own convictions in their 
native land, they were content to forsake it rather 
than violate what they deemed the dictates of con- 
science. They resolved, therefore, on a voluntary 
expatriation ; and cast their eyes first on Holland, 
which favoured their peculiar views, as the land of 
their pilgrimage. But this step could not easily be 
taken ; the consent of the civil magistrate was then 
necessary for such an emigration, and this they were 
not likely to obtain. Accordingly they endeavoured 
to fly the country secretly. In Lincolnshire espe- 
cially, a numerous band gathering together their 
goods and families, in places which they thought 
likely to escape notice, embarked on board a foreign 
transport they had hired. They were, however, 
watched, and their embarkation was prevented ; nor 
was it till after various attempts and many hardships 
that " at length they all got over : some at one time 
and some at another ; some in one place and some in 
another." Being " come into the Low Countries, r " 
they settled first at Amsterdam : though " they mette 
together againe with no small rejoicing, 5 ' yet had they 
still much to endure. They found there " fortified 

1 MS. History of the Plantation of Plymouth, &c, in the 
Fulham Library. 



ENGLISH PURITANS IN HOLLAND. 57 

cities strongly walled ; they heard a strange and un- 
couth language, and beheld the different manners of 
the people with their strange fashions and attires, all 
so much differing from that of their plaine # country, 
where they were bred and so long lived." Before 
long, moreover, they saw " the grim and grisly face 
of povertie coming upon them like an armed man 
with whom they must buckle and encounter." Under 
the prudent guidance of Mr. Robertson, a man of 
great parts, who came with them as their first pastor, 
they surmounted these difficulties, and were soon 
established in tolerable comfort at Leyden. There 
they remained twelve years ; but many things pre- 
vented their taking root amongst the Dutch. Though 
their industry and honesty, with the interest which 
attached to their position, had secured for them suf- 
ficient employment to provide for their absolute 
necessities, yet in that shrewd and populous nation 
they found themselves continually forestalled by the 
natives of the country. They had been led to take 
a part in the religious controversies which divided 
that people ; and the skill and readiness in debate, 
which gained for Mr. Robinson the highest applauses 
from Polyander and the Calvinists, must have equally 
displeased the friends of Episcopius, the champion 
of the opposite side. The truce also, which had 
now lasted twelve years between the Netherlands 
and Spain, was just expiring; and if they remained 
at Leyden, they knew not how 7 soon they might be 
involved in all the miseries of war. 



58 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Other motives were supplied by their peculiar re- 
ligious views. Although, in the main, the congrega- 
tions round them were formed upon their own model, 
yet there were many things with which they were not 
satisfied. The Puritans enforced the duty of observ- 
ing the Lord's-day with the formal strictness of the 
Jewish Sabbath, and they feared the effect upon their 
children of the opposite example of the Dutch. Already 
the strictness of their parental rule had been relaxed 
through the necessity of their position. " Many of 
their children (by the great licentiousness of youth 
in that country and the manifold temptations of the 
place) were drawn away into extravagant and evil 
courses, getting the reins off their necks ... so that 
they saw T their posteritie would be in danger to dege- 
nerate and be corrupted." 1 They longed, too, for 
something more than toleration ; they desired to set 
up churches after their own model of perfection, and 
to watch their growth and progress. 

The temper of the times naturally turned their 
thoughts to the new world ; already many adventurers 
had emigrated thither. There they might unfold their 
present small beginning into a strong people and a 
pure communion. Who could be more fitted to en- 
counter the necessary hardship of such an enterprise ? 
Already they were " well weaned from the delicate 
milk of their mother country, and enured to the diffi- 
culties of a strange and hard land, which yet in good 

1 Fulham ms. History. 



PLANS OF PURITAN EMIGRATION. 59 

part they had by patience overcome." 1 The example 
of Abraham seemed set before them as a model ; and 
at length, after many misgivings, they resolved upon 
crossing the Atlantic. Their thoughts were first 
turned to Virginia, and they opened a negotiation 
with the company which then governed that colony. 
Several letters passed upon the subject ; and in Sir 
Edwin Sandys they found one who, whilst he firmly 
upheld what he believed to be the truth of Christ, 
was ready to befriend their persons, and to concede 
a full licence to their weak consciences. They ac- 
knowledge, in " their owne and their churches name, 
his singular love in this weighty business," and trust 
themselves " to the care of his love and the counsel 
of his wisdom." Difficulties still interposed : the 
king could not "be wrought upon" to grant them 
a charter under his seal, though he was willing " to 
connive at them, and not molest them, provided 
they carried themselves peaceably." This caused 
for a time " a damp in the business, and some dis- 
traction ;" but at length they comforted themselves 
with the thought, that even if they had obtained their 
charter, yet if " afterwards there should be a pur- 
pose or desire to wrong them, though they had a 
seale as broad as the house-floor, it would not serve 
their turn, for there would be means found to recall 
or reverse it." On this persuasion they at length 
resolved on settling in the neighbourhood of the 

1 Fulham Ms. History. 



60 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Virginian colony, under a patent granted by that 
colony. It was also determined that a part only 
of their body should proceed at once, leaving its 
weaker members to follow when the settlement was 
formed. 

About the 22d July, 1620, all was ready. They 
had one ship of near sixty tons, to transport them 
to England, where they were to join another of 180 
tons, and proceed at once to America. Before set- 
ting sail they had a day of " solemn humiliation, 
their pastor taking his text from Ezra viii. 21, upon 
which he spent a good part of the day." They were 
afterwards " accompanied with most of their brethren 
out of the city unto Delfer Haven, where the ship 
lay ready to receive them ;" " so they left," says one 
of their party, " the goodly and pleasante citie which 
had been their resting-place nere twelve years ; but 
they knew that they were pilgrimes, and looked not 
much on those things, but lift up their eyes to the 
heavens, their dearest countrie, and quieted their 
spirits." It was an affecting parting between these 
world-pilgrims and their brethren left behind, and 
even drew " tears from sundry of the Dutch strangers 
that stood on the key as spectators ;" " but the tide 
(which stays for no man) calling them away that 
were thus loath to depart, their reverend pastor fall- 
ing downe on his knees (and they all with him), with 
waterie cheeks commended them, with most fervente 
prayers, to the Lord and His blessing ; and then, 
with mutual embraces and many tears, they tooke 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE VOYAGE. 61 

their leaves one of another, which proved to be the 
last leave to many of them." 1 

They had a prosperous voyage to London ; but 
many more troubles were yet before them. On the 
5th of August the two ships sailed in company, but 
as they dropped down the Channel the smaller ship 
leaked so greatly, that they were forced to put in to 
Dartmouth to refit. After losing much time there 
in the necessary repairs, they again set sail ; but 
after proceeding about " a hundred leagues without 
the Land's End," the same cause sent them back 
to Plymouth. Here, after consultation, they deter- 
mined to leave behind, for the present year, the 
faulty ship and part of their company. There were 
many willing to be left, some " out of feare and dis- 
content, others as unfite, in regard of their owne 
weakness and charge of many yonge children, to 
bear the brunte of this hard adventure." Thus, says 
their chronicler, " like Gedions armie this small 
number was devided, as if the Lord, by this worke 
of His Providence, thought these few too many for 
the great worke He had to doe." The letter of one 
of the leaders in the expedition, written whilst they 
lay at Dartmouth, gives a lively picture of one of 
those who stayed willingly behind at Plymouth, out 
of the M feare he had conceived of the ill success of 
the voiage." " Our pinass will not cease leaking, 
els I thinke we had been halfe wave at Virginia : 

1 Fulharn MS. History. 

G 



62 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

our viage hither hath been as full of crosses as our- 
selves have been of crokedness. We put in here 
to trimme her ; and I thinke if we had stayed at sea 
but three or four houres more, shee would have 
sunke right downe. Shee is as open and leakie as 
a seive ; there was a borde a man might have pulled 
off with his fingers, two foote longe, where the water 
came in as at a mole-hole. Our victuals will be 
halfe eaten up, I thinke, before wee go from the 
coast of England. I see not how we shall escape 
even the gasping of hunger- starved persons. Poore 
W. King and myselfe doe strive dayly who shall be 
meate first for the fishes." 

All this does not bespeak the bold heart which 
such an adventure needed, especially when we learn 
that the fear of the party had been practised on by 
artful men as to the apparent danger of the lesser 
vessel. But there were amongst them some braver 
spirits ; and, after a fatiguing voyage, one ship's 
company landed on the 9th of November, wearied 
and exhausted, on Cape Cod. The record of this 
landing is still kept alive in an engraving on the cer- 
tificate of membership, as used at this day by the 
" Pilgrim Society" of Plymouth. 1 They had been 
brought thus far to the north by the treachery of 
their captain, 2 who had been bribed by their Dutch 
neighbours to leave the more promising banks of 
the Hudson open for an intended colony of their 

1 Buckingham's America, vol. iii. p. 566 

2 Cotton Mather's Magnalia, book i. p. 7. 



FIRST PURITAN SETTLEMENT. 63 

own. On this inhospitable shore winter soon set 
in upon them with extreme severity. In the depths 
of its frosts, however, they explored enough of 
the coast to fix upon another site for their in- 
tended settlement ; and finding a commodious har- 
bour at the bottom of the bay, they all removed 
thither, and laid the first foundation of the future 
town of Plymouth. Here their first winter was 
spent in the endurance of hardships which wore away 
" more than half their whole company," so that 
scarcely fifty lived to the ensuing spring. The spot 
where the dead were laid still maintains the name 
of Burial Hill. It was ploughed up and sowed by 
the earliest colonists, lest its graves should make 
their fearful losses known, and so invite the hostile 
violence of the surrounding Indians. 

In the course of the next year their numbers 
were increased by a new detachment of their friends 
from Holland ; but their supplies were yet scanty, 
and their perils extreme. Still, however, they held 
to their purpose, and a stir was now made for them 
at home. In 1624, several leading Puritans were 
interested in their undertaking. In 1627 they had 
purchased for them from the company, in whom 
title to the land was vested by the crown, " that 
part of New England which lyes between a great 
river called Merrimack, and a certain other river 
there called Charles River, in the bottom of the 
Massachusetts Bay." And in the following year a 
royal charter was granted to them, with power to 



64 AMERICAN CHUHCH. 

elect yearly their own magistrates ; and the intention 
was openly avowed of " letting the non-conformists, 
with the grace and leave of the king, make a peace- 
able secession, and enjoy the liberty and the exer- 
cise of their own persuasions about the w r orship of 
the Lord Jesus Christ." 

The grant of this charter greatly helped on their 
cause ; and for the next twelve years " many very 
deserving persons transplanted themselves and their 
families to New England," 1 amongst whom were 
" gentlemen of ancient and worshipful families, and 
ministers of the Gospel then of great fame at home, 
and merchants, husbandmen, and artificers, to the 
number of some thousands." It was reckoned that 
198 ships were employed, at a cost of 192,000/., to 
carry over these emigrants, who for these " twelve 
years kept sometimes dropping, and sometimes^c^- 
ing into New England." By the year 1640, the set- 
tlers were supposed to have amounted to 4000 per- 
sons, who are said in fifty years to have multiplied 
into 100,000. As their numbers increased, they 
branched out into the surrounding country, until, 
in 1637, the neighbouring territory of Connecticut 
was occupied by men of the same sentiments ; and, 
" along the sea-coasts of that pleasant bay" began 
another colony, which soon " surprised the sight 
with several notable towns," and even extended 
itself to Long Island, following strictly in religious 
matters the " use of Massachusetts." To the north, 
1 Cotton Mather's Magnalia, book i. 



PURITAN SETTLEMENTS. 65 

also, and east, New Hampshire and the state of 
Maine began to receive some straggling settlers, who 
adopted almost the same model in religious matters. 

Many trials waited on these little bands, which, 
" toiling through thickets of ragged bushes, and 
clambering over crossed trees, made their way along 
Indian paths" to the new sites on which they fixed. 
" The suffering settlers burrowed for their first 
shelter under a hill-side. Tearing up roots and 
bushes from the ground, they subdued the stubborn 
soil with the hoe, glad to gain even a lean crop from 
the wearisome and imperfect culture, The cattle 
sickened on the wild fodder ; sheep and swine were 
destroyed by wolves ; there was no flesh but game. 
The long rains poured through the insufficient roofs 
of their smoky cottages, and troubled even the time 
for sleep ; yet the men laboured willingly, for they 
had their wives and little ones about them ; the forest 
rung with their psalms, and, ' the poorest people of 
God in the whole world, they were resolved to excel 
in holiness.' Such was the infancy of a New-Eng- 
land village." 1 

Thus, then, were these wide districts first set- 
tled; and with their very first texture were thus 
interwoven the threads of congregational dissent. 
The name of Independents they eschewed. 2 Their 
especial features were a rejection of episcopacy, of 
the use of " common prayer," and of the ceremonies 

1 Bancroft's United States, vol. i. p. 382. 

2 Cotton Mather's Magnalia. 

G 2 



66 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the Church. Each congregation of worshippers, 
united by a willing bond or covenant, submitting 
themselves to a pastor of their own choice, and 
exercising discipline, through certain ruling elders, 
according to what they quaintly termed " the Scrip- 
tural platform," formed a separate ''church," which 
could have no alliance, save that of friendly alliance, 
with other " churches," nor own any submission ex- 
cept to their common Lord. For this, which they 
esteemed a more perfect reformation, they had left 
their native land, and become settlers in the wilder- 
ness. 

It is pleasant to believe that there were amongst 
them many whose whole hearts were governed by a 
strong personal religion ; whilst it is as plain that 
their consciences were often scrupulous, and their 
self-w 7 ill in religion great. Of their earnest piety 
abundant records are preserved. It was their first 
care, when they settled in the west, to join themselves 
together in " a covenant with God," and, according 
to their forms, " to constitute themselves a Christian 
Church." The lives and waitings of their early ma- 
gistrates and governors are full of proofs of per- 
sonal religion. Nothing but conscious uprightness 
could have enabled a father to write to a grown-up 
son as John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, 
wrote to his son, wdio filled afterwards the same 
office in Connecticut. " You are the chief of two 
families. I had by your mother three sons and three 
daughters, and I had with her a large portion of out- 



JOHN WINTHROP. 67 

ward estate. These now are all gone. . . . You only 
are left to see the vanity of these temporal things, 
and to learn wisdom thereby; which may be of more 
use to you, through the Lord's blessing, than all that 
inheritance which might have befallen you. . . . My 
son, the Lord knows how dear thou art to me, and 
that my love has been more for thee than for myself. 
But I know that thy prosperity depends not on my 
care, nor on thy own, but upon the blessing of our 
heavenly Father : neither doth it on the things of 
this world, but on the light of God's countenance, 
through the merit and mediation of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. But if you weigh things aright, and sum up 
all the turnings of divine Providence together, you 
shall find great advantage. The Lord hath brought 
us to a good land ; a land where we enjoy outward 
peace and liberty, and, above all, the blessings of 
the Gospel, without the burden of imposition in mat- 
ters of religion. Many thousands there are who 
would give great estates to enjoy our condition. La- 
bour, therefore, my son, to increase our thankfulness 
to God for all His mercies to thee, especially for that 
He hath revealed His everlasting good will to thee in 
Jesus Christ, and joined thee to the visible body of 
His Church in the fellowship of His people, and hath 
saved thee in all thy travels abroad from being in- 
fected with the vices of those countries where thou 
hast been (a mercy vouchsafed but unto few young 
gentlemen travellers). Let Him have the honour of 
it who kept thee. . . . And therefore I would have 



68 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

you to love Him again, and serve Him, and trust Him 
for the time to come. Love and prize that word of 
truth which only makes known to you the precious 
and eternal thoughts of the Light inaccessible. Deny 
your own wisdom, that you may find His ; and esteem 
it the greatest honour to lie under the simplicity of 
the Gospel of Christ crucified. ... In all the exercise 
of your gifts and improvement of your talents, have 
an eye to your Master's end more than your own, 
and to the day of account, that you may then have 
your quietus est, — even ' Well done, good and faith- 
ful servant.' My last request unto you is, that you 
be careful to have your children brought up in 
the knowledge and fear of God, and in the faith of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. This will give you the best 
comfort of them, and keep them free from any want 
or miscarriage ; and when you part from them, it 
will be no small joy to your soul that you shall meet 
them again in heaven." 1 

Such a spirit as this, carried out, as it seems to 
have been, for ten years of renewed elective govern- 
ment over the tottering feebleness of the infant colony 
of Massachusetts, might well earn for Winthrop the 
title which, in the manner of his times, old Mather 
bestows upon him, of the "New-English Nehemiah." 
Yet amidst this early promise we may find traces of 
those evils which multiplied at home so rankly in 
the great rebellion ; as if to shew how short-lived 
and uncertain is the growth of personal religion, 
1 Cotton Mather's Magnalia, book ii. cap. 11. 



CHARACTER OF NEW-ENGLAND PURITANS. 69 

when taken from the shelter and protection of the 
Church. There are many proofs that these New- 
England settlers were amongst the very movers in 
those after- troubles. The notorious Hugh Peters 
(who preached afterwards in England in favour of 
the murder of the king) was a pastor at Boston ; and 
there seems no good reason for doubting that Sir 
Arthur Haselrig, Mr. Hampden, and Cromwell him- 
self, were intercepted on the Thames embarking for 
these colonies : Sir Henry Vane the younger, touch- 
ing there in 1636, was immediately elected governor 
of Massachusetts ; and at the close of the rebellion 
no fewer than three of the regicides found shelter in 
New England. 

Neither here, indeed, or in England had the Puri- 
tans as yet worked out all the consequences of their 
tenets. At Massachusetts they at first declared 
that they " were not separatists — that they did not 
separate from the Church of England;" 1 and when 
some who joined them thought to recommend them- 
selves by " holding forth a profession of separation 
from the Church of England," 2 they were " stopped 
forthwith" by the New-England pastors. But this 
was only the coyness of early schism. They were, 
in truth, most hostile to her ; holding " the com- 
position of common prayer and ceremonies to be a 
sinful violation of the worship of God," 3 "and arch- 
bishops, bishops, archdeacons, officials, and the like, 

1 C. Mather, book i. c. 4. 2 lb, c.iii. 

3 lb. ut supra. 



70 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

to be humane creatures, mere inventions of man, to 
the great dishonour of Christ Jesus ; plants not of 
the Lord's planting, which all should certainly be 
rooted up and cast forth." 1 Some, indeed, went fur- 
ther still. The fundamental principles of the Xew- 
haven settlement declared " that all vicars, rectors, 
deans, priests, and bishops, are of the devil ; are 
wolves, petty popes, and anti-christian tyrants." 2 
" It is a heinous sin, they declared, to be present 
when prayers are read out of a book by a vicar or 
bishop :" nay, they go on to say, " that the lovers of 
Zion had better put their ears to the mouth of hell, and 
learn from the whispers of the devils, than read the 
bishops' books." 3 When the overthrow of the Church 
of England was made known in the colonies, their 
exultation broke forth in such rhapsodies as these : 
"This is the Lord's doing, and ought to be marvel- 
lous in our eyes. ... I have snared thee, and thou 
art taken, O Babylon, i. e. bishops. . . . These proud 
Anakimes are throwne downe, and their glorv laid 
in the dust. The tiranous bishops are expelled, their 
courts disolved, their canons forceless, their service 
cashiered, their ceremonies useless, and despised ; 
and the proud and profane supporters and cruel de- 
fenders of these, marvellouslie overthrowne : and are 
not these greate things? who can deny it?" 4 So 

1 A Platform of Church Discipline, agreed upon at the 
synod at Cambridge, New England, cap. vii., 1649. 

2 History of Connecticut, 1781. 3 Ibid. 
4 Fulham mss. 



PURITAN SPIRIT. 71 

strong, indeed, were their principles, that even 
their zealous Puritan eulogist avows his " fear that 
the leaven of that rigid thing they call Brownism has 
prevailed sometimes a little of the farthest in the 
administrations of this pious people ;" l and com- 
plains of " religion being like to die at Plymouth, 
through a libertine and Brownistic 2 spirit prevailing 
amongst the people." 3 

The want of the appointed band of unity was 
already broadly seen in the religious state of the 
settlements. The Puritan magistrates watched with 
terror the working out of their own opinions in 
the unlimited divisions of the people. Even in their 
judgment " the cracks and flaws of the new building 
portended a fall. 5 ' 4 On the other side they were 
reproached as being " priest-ridden magistrates," 5 un- 
der " a covenant of works." The Presbyterian minis- 
ters were greeted with the same epithets which had 
been bestowed upon the clergy at home ; they were 
" the ushers of persecution," 6 " popish factors," and 
the like. In action also, their own principles were 

1 Magn. b. ii. c. 2. 

2 Robert Browne was the founder of the " Independent" 
Dissenters, who long bore the name of Brownists from him. 
He is described by Neal (i. 37o, 376), the dissenting historian, 
as being a " fiery, hot-headed young man ;" " idle and disso- 
lute" in middle life ; and in old age, " poor, proud, and very 
passionate." He died in 1630. 

3 Magn. b. i. c. 3. 

4 Shepherd's Lamentation, quoted by Bancroft. 

5 Coddington, in ditto. 6 Ditto, 



72 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

turned against them. Roger Williams, a " zealous 
young minister, with precious gifts," headed the op- 
position of a faction to the " control over opinion," 
which his brethren attempted to maintain. He was 
willing to die for his opinion, that " none be ac- 
counted a delinquent for doctrine." It was in vain 
that he was driven out to become the founder of 
Rhode Island ; his wildest opinions were enlarged 
by Anne Hutchinson, " a woman of such admirable 
understanding and t profitable and sober carriage,' 
that she won a powerful party in the country." 1 She 
not only " weakened the hands and hearts of the 
people towards the ministers," 2 but set aside all fixed 
forms of faith and laws of conduct, with the pretence 
of being guided by " a new rule of practice by im- 
mediate revelations." 3 This she explained to mean, 
not a special revelation " in the way of miracle," but 
merely that the impression of his own mind was to 
every one the true rule both of belief and practice. 
She was succeeded by Gorton, who, with his follow- 
ers, openly inveighed against the whole body of 
colonial ministers, and, in his dreamy reveries, pro- 
claimed that there was no heaven save in the hearts 
of the good, nor any hell but in the mind. The 
Quakers also soon sprung up in this congenial soil ; 
and as she wandered about " to build up their friends 
in the faith," Mary Dyar proclaimed against the New 

1 Bancroft. 

2 Winthrop, in Hutch., quoted by Bancroft. 

3 Welde, in Bancroft, cap. ix. 



PURITAN DIVISIONS. 73 

England pastors her " woe is me for you, ye are dis- 
obedient and deceived." 

It was in vain that the whole civil power at- 
tempted to check the growth of these multiplying 
sects ; it was in vain that the puritan magistrates 
used without scruple the very arms of which at home 
they had made the loudest complaints. Like the 
Independents in England, they had learned from 
their own sufferings no lesson of toleration towards 
others. " To say that men ought to have liberty 
of conscience," affirms one of their great authorities, 
" is impious ignorance." 1 " Religion admits of no 
eccentric notions." Banishment was their first and 
favourite remedy. " For the security of the flock 
we pen up the wolf; but a door is purposely left 
open, whereby he may depart at his pleasure." 2 
This was enforced on all who differed from the 
reigning sect. 

Two brothers, Church-of-England men, a lawyer 
and a merchant, who had joined unawares the set- 
tlement of Salem, finding how matters stood, ven- 
tured to "uphold" in their own house, " for such 
as would resort unto them, the Common-Prayer wor- 
ship." 3 But such an enormity they were not long 
suffered to continue ; for " a disturbance arising 
amongst the people upon this occasion," the bro- 
thers were called before the magistrates, and " so 

1 Ward, quoted by Bancroft, cap. x. 

2 Norton, in Bancroft. 3 Magn. b. i. c. 4. 



74 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

handled as to be induced to leave the colony forth- 
with." Nor was it Churchmen alone of whom they 
thus rid themselves. They dealt the like measure 
to all sectaries who were not of their own persua- 
sion. " No food," runs one of their brief laws, " and 
lodgings shall be allowed a Quaker, Adamite, or 
other heretic." 1 It was judged sufficient reason to 
expel a household from the tow r n of Salem, that 
its head was by confession " a dam-ned Quaker." 
Where banishment failed of effecting its purpose, 
they were not slow in using other methods. Fines, 
imprisonments, stripes, and even death itself, were 
amongst their remedies : for " God forbid," say 
they, " that our love of truth should be so cold 
that we should tolerate errors." Convicted Anabap- 
tists were fined twenty pounds, or " whipped un- 
mercifully;" "absence from the ministry of the 
word" was treated in like manner by men whose 
main complaint in England had been, that they were 
compelled to be present at their parish church. But 
of all sects, the Quakers were the most severely 
handled. Of them Cotton Mather gravely writes, 
when treating of the troublers of the land : " There 
have been found amongst us some unhappy sectaries 
— namely, Quakers and Seekers, and such other 
energumens." 2 As such they were treated. Fines 
were levied on any w r ho harboured the " accursed 

1 Blue Code, no. 13. 

2 Energumens — persons possessed with evil spirits. 



PURITAN DIVISIONS. /O 

sect ;" T whilst " Friends" themselves were sentenced, 
after the first conviction, to lose one ear ; after the 
second, another ; and after the third, to have the 
tongue bored through with a red hot iron. " If any 
person," say the Puritan laws, " turns Quaker, he 
shall be banished, and not suffered to return on pain 
of death." 2 Nor was this an inoperative statute. 
Many Quakers in New England were put to death 
for the profession of their faith, until an order from 
King Charles II. brought this violence to a close. 3 

Such was the religious liberty of Presbyterian 
New England twenty years after the true doctrine 
of toleration had been carried out in Maryland. But 
this tone of harshness pervaded the Puritan cha- 
racter. It dictated the " Blue Code" of Connecticut 4 
(so named, according to probable conjecture, by the 
inhabitants of the neighbouring settlements from its 
being written, as it were, in blood), which amongst 
other things enjoins, that " no one shall run on the 
Sabbath-day, or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, 
except reverently to and from meeting;" which 
makes it criminal in a mother to kiss her infant on 
the Sabbath-day ; which strictly forbids the " reading 
of the Common- Prayer, keeping Christmas-day or 
saints'-day, making mince-pies, or playing on any 

1 Bancroft, i. 463. 2 Blue Code, no. 13. 

3 Neale's Puritans, vol. i. p. 334. 

4 History of Connecticut, 1781. Capt. Marryat's Diary, 
Blue Code. A copy of which, through the kindness of the last- 
named gentleman, lies before me. 



76 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

instrument of music, except the drum, the trumpet, 
and the Jews'-harp." The same code enforced at- 
tendance at the established Puritan worship, under 
the penalty of a money-fine for every time of ab- 
sence. 1 Indeed, bare toleration of different forms 
of worship was condemned amongst them as unques- 
tionable sin. " If," says one of their writers in 
1647, "after men continue in obstinate rebellion 
against the light, the civil magistrate shall still walk 
towards them in soft and gentle commiseration, his 
softness and gentleness is excessive large to foxes 
and wolves, but his bowels are miserably straitened 
and hardened against the poor sheep and lambs of 
Christ. Nor is it frustrating the end of Christ's 
coming, but a direct advancing it, to destroy the bo- 
dies of those wolves who seek to destroy the souls 
of those for whom Christ died." 2 

The same spirit runs through all the dealings of 
the " pilgrim fathers" with the unhappy Indians whom 
they dispossessed. It seems scarcely to have crossed 
their minds, that these devoted tribes were part of 
the great human family. " By this prodigious pes- 
tilence," says their historian, himself evidently a 
man of a gentle temper, " the woods were cleared 
of those pernicious creatures, to make room for a 
better growth." 3 These, again, are his speculations 
on the mode by which the American continent was 

1 Cotten's Bloody Tenet washed White. See also Belk- 
nap's History of New Hampshire, c. iii. p. 44. 

2 C. Mather, Magnalia, i. 7. 3 lb. 



TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. 77 

first peopled : " We may guess that probably the 
devil decoyed those miserable salvages hither in 
hopes that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 
would never come here to destroy or disturb his 
absolute empire over them." ] "Tawny pagans," 
" rabid wolves," " grim salvages," " bloody sal- 
vages," are the usual terms he gives them, unless, 
when rising into fervour, he boldly declares them to 
be " so many devils." As such they were treated. 
These " pilgrims," who left their fathers' land, be- 
lieving that the " God of heaven had served a sum- 
mons upon the spirits of His people, stirring them up 
to go over a terrible ocean into a more terrible de- 
sert, for the pure enjoyment of all His ordinances . . . 
to carry the Gospel into those parts, and raise a 
bulwark against antichrist," — they thought nothing, 
on a mere rumour of intended mischief, of " pre- 
tending to trade with the Indians," that they might 
more safely, " with prodigious resolution, kill divers 
of their chiefs ;" or of " vigorously discharging their 
muskets upon the salvages," and so " astonishing 
them with the strange effects of such dead doing 
things as powder and shot." Nor was this uncon- 
nected with the character of their religion. The 
Churchmen of Virginia, until they were provoked 
to retaliate by the attempted massacre of their whole 
colony, had treated all the Indian tribes with kind- 
ness. There were amongst them, from the first, 
men who devoted all their energies to spread the 
1 Magn. b. iii. p. 190. 
h 2 



78 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

faith of Christ amongst their heathen neighbours. 
But the stern and exclusive creed of the New-Eng- 
land Puritans did not favour such attempts. Many 
of the Puritans, accustomed to regard themselves ex- 
clusively as the chosen of God, habitually applied 
to these poor heathens the denunciations of the Pen- 
tateuch against the old inhabitants of Canaan. Not 
perceiving that they had no direct charge, like the 
famine or the pestilence, to execute the long-delayed 
vengeance of the Almighty against a people " whose 
iniquity was full," they deemed themselves commis- 
sioned, like Joshua of old, to a work of blood ; and 
thinking that the sword of God's vengeance was 
committed to their hands, they rejoiced with enthu- 
siastic triumph at the approaching extermination of 
these tribes of idol-worshippers. The same fana- 
tical delusions troubled even the more gentle spirits 
of their band, and kept them from exertion for their 
Indian brethren. 1 Even amongst their own coun- 
trymen, w r e are assured by a contemporary Presby- 
terian writer, who quotes authorities for all his as- 
sertions, that three out of four were driven by the 
rigours of their system from community with any 
church ; and as a necessary consequence, their pe- 
culiar views, 2 he continues, " exceedingly hindered 
the conversion of the poor pagans. God, in great 
mercy, having opened a door in these last times to 

1 Bishop Berkeley's Sermon before the Society for the Pro- 
pagation of the Gospel, 1731, pp. 246, 247. 

2 R. Baylie's Errours of the Time, p. 60. 1646. 



JOHN ELIOT. 79 

a new world of reasonable creatures, for this end 
above all, that the Gospel might be preached to 
them, for the enlargement of the kingdom of Christ, 
— the principles and practice of the Independents 
doth cross this blessed hope. What have they to do 
with those that are without ? Their pastors preach 
not for conversion .... Of all that ever crossed the 
American seas, they are noted as most neglectful 
of this work .... I have read of none of them that 
seem to have minded this matter." l 

It was not till the very year in which this re- 
proach was penned that any efforts were made to 
remove it from the Christians of New England. In 
that year, John Eliot, a man of primitive piety, zeal, 
and mortification, broke through the bondage of the 
system round him, and treated the red men, whose 
lands " the pilgrims" now so largely occupied, as 
having, like themselves, souls for which Christ died. 
He was one of those whom the unhappy humours of 
the time drove out of that Church at home, of which 
he should have been a stay and ornament. But 
God overruled his loss to the blessing of these hea- 
then. From a complete education at the English 
University of Cambridge, he was lured over the 
Atlantic to become the apostle of the Indians. He 
stood at first alone. " I cannot find," says his Pu- 
ritan chronicler, 2 iC that any besides the Holy Spirit 
of God first moved him to the blessed work of evan- 

1 R. Baylie's Errours of the Time, p. 60. 

2 C. Mather, book iii. p. 190. 



80 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

gelising these perishing Indians." " The thought," 
however, he continues, " may have been suggested 
to him by the declaration of the royal charter, that 
to win and incite the natives of that country to the 
knowledge and obedience of the only true God and 
Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith, in our 
royal intention and the adventurers' free profession, 
is the principal end of the plantation." 

In this spirit Eliot entered on his work, and 
thenceforth his name has been identified with self- 
denying and successful efforts to spread the Gospel 
of our Lord amongst the heathen of North America. 
He prepared himself for his task with unexampled 
diligence. One great obstacle to be surmounted was 
the difficulty of mastering the Indian language. The 
peculiar feature which pervades its dialects is, the 
habit of clustering together, into one prolonged word, 
the separate ideas which, in our language, occupy 
many distinct words. This made its acquisition seem 
almost impossible to the contemporaries and even 
the successors of Eliot. " Its words," says Cotton 
Mather, 1 " are long enough to tire the patience of 
any scholar in the world ; one would think they had 
been growing ever since Babel unto the dimensions 
to which they are now extended." Further on, he 
gravely tells us that, " once rinding the daemons in a 
possessed young woman understood the Latin, Greek, 
and Hebrew languages, curiosity led me to make 

1 Magnalia, book iii. part iii. 



CROMWELL AND THE INDIANS. 81 

trial of this Indian language, and the daemons did 
seem as if they did not understand it." These diffi- 
culties Eliot's patience overcame ; and he was here- 
by able to render the most effective service to the 
cause to which his life was given. For the sup- 
port of these missions, parochial collections to a 
large amount had been made in Cromwell's time. 
These had been invested in the purchase of land ; 
and, after the Restoration, Clarendon's influence main- 
tained the proper application of the fund so created. 
The Honourable Robert Boyle, a name never to be 
mentioned without honour, was placed at the head 
of the trust ; the funds of which, at this time, were 
mainly expended in printing the Bible and other re- 
ligious works, of Eliot's translating, in the Indian 
tongue. 1 So much had his resolute perseverance ef- 
fected in this laborious work. Mightier difficulties 
than these were levelled before him. The fast- 
closed darkened hearts of these Indians opened be- 
fore his words, and many converts were gathered 
by him into the Christian fold. Nobly did he spend 
himself in these blessed labours. Nor was his 
example without fruit. Others soon trod in his 
footsteps ; and, forty-one years after his going 
forth to these Gentiles, there were reckoned " six 
churches of baptised Indians in New England, and 
eighteen assemblies of catechumens professing the 
name of Christ ; of the Indians, there are twenty - 

1 Life of Richard Baxter, book i. part ii. p. 290. 



OX AMERICAN CIIURCH. 

four who are preachers of the word of God, and, 
besides these, there are four English ministers who 
preach the Gospel in the Indian tongue/' l This 
flourishing report is not unquestioned by contempo- 
rary writers ; but whether it be exaggerated or not, 
there is no doubt as to the early indifference of all 
the Puritans to such exertions ; and it is a striking 
proof of the fierce and exclusive temper which their 
peculiarities had nurtured, that, in a settlement which 
owed its origin to zeal about religion, for six-and- 
twenty years of constant intercourse, in peace and 
war, with their Pagan brethren, the desire of their 
conversion to the faith seems never to have visited 
a single breast ; no one had so much as thought of 
attempting to convey to these unhappy tribes around 
them the blessed message of salvation. With an 
apathy made more portentous by the very language 
of their charter, they never thought of them as men 
partaking of redemption. They seized without scru- 
ple on the lands possessed of old times by the Indians, 
" voting themselves to be the children of God, and 
that the wilderness in the utmost parts of the earth 
was given to them:" 2 and it is calculated 3 that up- 
wards of 180,000 of the aboriginal inhabitants were 
slaughtered by them in Massachusetts Bay and Con- 
necticut alone. 

With this indifference towards the heathen was 

1 Letter of Increase — Mather's, July 12, 1687. Magnalia, 
book iii. p. 111. 

2 History o£ Connecticut, 1781. 3 Ibid. p. 112. 



PURITAN TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. 83 

combined a restless proselyting spirit towards their 
brethren. Early in their history, they attempted to 
plant the standard of division amongst the Church- 
men of Virginia ; and when once their sect had been 
established there, New England was ever ready to 
send forth her succours to the founders or fomenters 
of religious difference. 



CHAPTER IV. 

from 1688 to 1775. 

Spiritual destitution of the colonies— Exertions of Bishop of London, 
Hon. Robert Boyle, and others— Drs. Blair and Bray sent as com- 
missaries to Virginia and Maryland — New York conquered by 
English— Trinity Church endowed— Progress of the Church in New 
England — Boston petition for episcopal worship — Foundation of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — Religious state of 
the colonies — Labours of the missionaries of the Venerable Society 
— Rev. George Keith — Violence of Quakers — Opposition from New 
England magistrates —Yale College — Leading Congregationalists 
join the Church— Progress of the Church at Newtown under Mr. 
Beach — Violence of Congregationalists— General state of the Church 
in Virginia — Mr. Whitefield— Spreading dissent — Rise of Anabap- 
tists in Virginia — Resistance to the clergy — Low state of Church — 
Its causes — Clergy dependent on their flocks — Want of Bishops — 
Attempts to obtain an American episcopate, in the reign of Charles 
II., of Queen Anne — Bishop Berkeley opposed by Walpole — Sup- 
ported by Archbishop Seeker — Efforts in the colonies — Zeal of 
northern colonies— Virginia refuses to join in the attempt— Causes 
of this refusal. 

To those who have learned to value rightly the im- 
portance of Christian unity, it will be no matter of 
surprise to hear, that in this divided land the Church 
of Christ could not flourish. So plain, in truth, bad 
become the features of moral and religious evil in 
our Transatlantic colonies at the close of the seven- 



ROBERT BOYLE. 85 

teenth century, that the slightest observation of them 
at once startled good men at home, and led them to 
immediate action. Amongst the first of these were 
Sir Leoline Jenkins and the Hon. Robert Boyle ; 
the first of whom left by will a foundation for two 
fellowships at Jesus College, Oxford, to be held by 
persons in holy orders who should be willing to 
take upon them the cure of souls in our foreign 
plantations ; and the other, after undertaking to 
conduct a company in 1661, for the propagation of 
the Gospel amongst the heathen natives of New 
England, left an annual sum to support the lectures 
which to this day bear his name, that, " being dead," 
he might " still speak'' to all succeeding generations 
of this great duty of converting infidels to the true 
faith of Christ. 

From these beginnings other efforts followed. 
In the year 1685, the Bishop of London persuaded 
Dr. Blair to go as his commissary to Virginia. For 
fifty-three years he held this office, and zealously 
discharged its duties. By him the long-neglected 
project of training for the ministry the English and 
Indian youth was happily revived, and through his 
unwearied labours brought at last to a successful 
close in the establishment of the college of " William 
and Mary." 

The appointment of Dr. Blair was shortly fol- 
lowed by the nomination of Dr. Bray as commissary 
in Maryland. 

This colony, as has been said, was originally 



86 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

founded by settlers of the Roman Catholic persua- 
sion, but with the free allowance of all other forms 
of worship ; and it is well worthy of remark, that 
at the very time when Puritan Massachusetts was 
persecuting to the death all who disagreed with the 
dominant sect, the governors of Maryland were 
bound by an annual oath, not " by themselves, or 
indirectly, to trouble, molest, or discountenance any 
person professing to believe in Jesus Christ, for or 
in respect of religion ; and if any such were so mo- 
lested, to protect the person molested, and punish the 
offender. " l On this basis things continued until the 
time of the Great Rebellion. Settlers of various 
views in matters of religion had been received and 
protected in the colony. But as soon as the go- 
vernment was wrested from the hands of the Lord 
Baltimore by the adherents of the parliament, and 
the Independents thereby made its masters, they re- 
pealed these laws of universal toleration, and pro- 
scribed entirely " popery and prelacy." It is not a 
little striking, that the first enactment in the statute- 
book of Maryland, which forbade to any one the 
free exercise of that which he believed to be the 
true form of Christian worship, should have been 
introduced by such fierce pretenders to religious 
liberty as the Independents. 

So, however, it was ; and such the law conti~ 
nued until the fall of Cromwell's party. With the 

1 Chalmers, 235 ; quoted by Dr. Hawks. 



MARYLAND. 87 

Restoration, Lord Baltimore regained his rights as 
owner of the colony, and for a season all proceeded 
on its former plan. But a shock had been given to 
the old constitution ; and the troubles which from 
time to time disturbed society at home, soon ex- 
tended to the colony, and took there the same direc- 
tion. The mass of the population were by this time 
Protestant ; and as during the reigns of Charles 
and James II., fears of popery were the mainsprings 
of disturbances in England, Maryland, now brought 
anew under the rule of a Roman Catholic proprietor, 
was a favourable theatre for such commotions. Ac- 
cordingly, the accession of William and Mary to the 
English throne was, after some preparatory troubles, 
followed by the overthrow of Lord Baltimore's au- 
thority, and the substitution in his stead of a royal 
governor. This change was succeeded by an act of 
assembly, which, in 1692, established the Church of 
England as the religion of the colony ; divided its 
territory into parishes ; and endowed its clergy with 
an income to be derived from the payment of forty 
pounds of tobacco by every taxable person in the 
province. To the operation of this law, the op- 
ponents of the Church created various hindrances. 
The Romanists and Quakers, — who abounded in 
the colony, and both looked on such a law as most 
injurious to themselves, — united in their opposition 
to it ; and sometimes by colonial resistance, some- 
times by misrepresentation to the government at 
home, they long delayed its execution. 



88 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

At this critical period, the clergy, feeling their 
weakness, and seeing that it was in great part owing 
to that want of union, of which the presence of their 
proper head is so great a spring and safeguard, be- 
sought the Bishop of London to send them at least 
a commissary, clothed with such power as should 
" capacitate him to redress what is amiss, and sup- 
ply what is wanting, in the Church." The bishop 
assented to their wishes ; and most happy was his 
choice. Dr. Thomas Bray, his first commissary in 
Maryland, was a man of rare devotion, joined to an 
invincible energy in action. He abandoned willingly 
the prospect of large English preferment, to nourish 
the infant Church in the spiritual wastes of Mary- 
land. No sooner had he accepted the appointment 
than he set himself to contrive means for fulfilling 
all its duties. His first care was to find pious and 
useful ministers, whom he could persuade to settle 
with him on the other side of the Atlantic ; and in 
this he so far prospered as to increase the number 
labouring there from three to sixteen clergymen. 
He began also the formation of colonial libraries ; 
and in the course of his exertions in this work, was 
led on to still greater efforts. He perceived the 
need and the fitness of the co-operation of all ranks 
of Churchmen in such attempts ; and having once 
conceived this idea, he rested not until he had laid 
the foundation of the Society for Promoting Christian 
Knowledge, and that for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts. 



DR. BRAY. 89 

In all these labours he was indefatigable. No 
difficulties daunted him. Finding, in the course of 
his preparations, that he required the personal con- 
sent of the king to some proposed arrangements, he 
undertook at once, and at his own expense, a voyage 
to Holland, where the monarch then was. In a like 
spirit he acted throughout ; for some years he con- 
tinued patiently completing his preparations in Eng- 
land, though his salary as commissary did not begin 
until he sailed for Maryland. At length, on the 12th 
of March, 1700, after a tedious voyage, he reached 
the land of his adoption. Here he soon displayed 
the like activity. He assembled the clergy at visi- 
tations — instructed them by charges — and enforced 
discipline, to the utmost of his means, against any of 
bad lives. 

On one notoriously corrupt he enforced, before 
the other clergy, the aggravations of his crime. 
First, " that it is done by a person in holy orders. 
Secondly, by a missionary (which, by the way, my 
brethren, should be a consideration of no small 
weight with all of us). Thirdly, as to time, that 
this scandal is given at a juncture when our Church 
here is weakest, and our friends seem to be fewest, 
and our enemies strongest. And, lastly, as to place, 
it so happens that you are seated in the midst of 
papists ; and, I am credibly informed, there have 
been more perversions made to popery since your 
crime has been the talk of the country, than in all 
the time it has been an English colony. These con- 
i t 



90 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

siderations, sir, do make it necessary that all possible 
expedition, which is consistent with common justice, 
should be made in this affair, so as to acquit you or 
condemn you." 1 

What the results of such zeal might have been, 
if, instead of being a delegated representative of a 
distant prelate. Dr. Bray had himself been appoint- 
ed bishop in Maryland, it is impossible to calcu- 
late. As it was, the efforts, which depended wholly 
on his individual zeal, instead of springing ever fresh 
out of the system of the Church, scarcely outlived 
his own stay in Maryland. This was necessarily 
short. The opposition made to the established rights 
of the colonial clergy called for his presence at head- 
quarters, where the Quakers and Romanists were 
active and united ; and he returned to England to 
maintain the cause of his afflicted community. Upon 
his departure religion comparatively languished, from 
the weakness of its imperfect planting, and the un- 
corrected evil lives of some among the clergy. Still, 
in spite of all hindrances, the Church gained some 
ground; and a majority of the colony, now increased 
to 30,000, were accounted of her communion. 

Nor was this rising energy confined to Maryland. 
There was a stir also in the other provinces. New 
Amsterdam, or New York, as it was termed after its 
conquest by the English, was finally ceded by the 
Dutch, at the treaty of Breda, in 1667. This change 

1 Hawks's Eccles. Con. vol. ii. p. 102. 



TRINITY CHURCH ENDOWED. 91 

of masters transferred at once the garrison-chapel 
to the use of the Church of England. Within these 
narrow walls it was limited for many years, until, in 
1696, another church was built under the name of 
" Trinity," and endowed temporarily by Governor 
Fletcher, and in perpetuity by his successor the 
Lord Cornbury, with the freehold of a neighbouring 
property, known hitherto as the " King's Farm." 
Even in New England, in spite of penal laws, which 
rigidly prohibited any " ministry or Church-admi- 
nistration, in any town or plantation of the colony, 
separate from that which is openly observed and 
dispensed by the approved minister of the place," a 
movement began towards the long-despised Church 
of England. 

In 1679 a petition, from a large body of persons 
in their chief town of Boston, was presented to King 
Charles II., praying " that a church might be allowed 
in that city for the exercise of religion according to 
the Church of England/"' This request was granted, 
and a church erected for the purpose, bearing the 
name of " the King's Chapel." Far more consider- 
able matters followed the inquiry which this step 
occasioned. It was found, that throughout all that 
populous district there were but four who called 
themselves ministers of the Church of England ; and 
but two of these who had been regularly sent forth 
to the work. This was a state of things which 
could not be endured ; and by a happy movement, 
of which Dr. Bray was in great measure the sug- 



92 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

gestor, the bishops of the Church set themselves to 
find some means for its correction. They deter- 
mined to associate themselves into a body for this 
purpose, with such devout members of the laity and 
clergy as God should incline to join them in their 
work of mercy. They issued their address to the 
community, and were joined by ready hearts on all 
sides ; so that, having applied for and obtained a 
charter of incorporation, they met for despatch of 
business, as the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, in June 1701, under the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury as their president. Many great names in the 
English Church appear in the catalogue of their first 
and warmest supporters, amongst the chief of whom 
were Bishop Beveridge, Archbishops Wake and Sharp, 
and Bishops Gibson and Berkeley. 

Funds soon flowed in upon them from every 
quarter ; but the want to be relieved w T as greater 
than the worst returns had stated. England, it was 
found, had been indeed peopling the new world with 
colonies of heathens. " There is at this day," is 
Bishop Berkeley's declaration somewhat later, " but 
little sense of religion, and a most notorious corrup- 
tion of manners, in the English colonies settled on 
the continent of America." 1 Nor will this language 
appear overstrained, if it is compared with the nu- 
merical returns which the inquiries of the day called 
forth. For from these it appeared that in " South 

1 A " Proposal for better supplying of Churches in our 
Foreign Plantations, " published in 1725. 



SPIRITUAL DESTITUTION. V3 

Carolina there were 7000 souls, besides negroes and 
Indians, living without any minister of the Church 
. . . and above half the people living regardless of any 
religion. In North Carolina above 5000 souls with- 
out any minister, any administrations used ; no public 
worship celebrated ; neither the children baptised, 
nor the dead buried, in any Christian form. Virginia 
contained above 40,000 souls, divided into 40 pa- 
rishes, but wanting near half the number of clergymen 
requisite. Maryland contained above 25,000, di- 
vided into 26 parishes, but wanting near half the 
number of ministers requisite. In Pennsylvania (says 
Col. Heathcote) there are at least 20,000 souls, of 
which not above 700 frequent the church, and there 
are not more than 250 communicants. In New York 
government we have 30,000 souls at least, of which 
about 1200 frequent the church, and we have about 
450 communicants. In Connecticut there are about 
30,800 souls ; of which, when they have a minister 
among them, about 150 frequent the church, and 
there are 35 communicants. In Rhode Island and 
Narragansett there are about 10,000 souls, of which 
about 150 frequent the church, and there are 30 
communicants. In Boston and Piscataway there are 
about 80,000 souls, of which about 600 frequent the 
church, and 120 the sacrament. This is the true, 
though melancholy, state of our Church in North 
America." 1 

1 Humphrey's History of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, p. 41, &c. 



94 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Nor are these merely the accounts of episcopalian 
writers. Cotton Mather describes the state of Rhode 
Island colony in 1695, as " a colluvies of Antino- 
mians, Familists, Anabaptists, Antisabbatarians, Ar- 
minians, Socinians, Quakers, Ranters, and every thing 
but Roman Catholics and true Christians — bona terra, 
mala gens." 1 Such was, within little more than fifty 
years, the fruit of founding a people on the specious 
attempt of making " no man a delinquent for doc- 
trine:" not in its true sense, of abandoning all hope 
of forcing men to trust in Christ by penalties and 
statutes, but in its most false sense, of treating them 
as if they were not themselves indeed responsible for 
their belief; of maintaining no external system of 
faith, but counting that as true to every man which 
he was pleased to gather for himself in the boundless 
waste of unauthorised opinion; of resting truth upon 
the shifting sand-bank of opinion, and not on the 
sure rock of revelation. 

How far such a population could act as an out- 
post of the faith may be easily conceived. What their 
influence had been amongst their Indian neighbours 
we are told by Bishop Berkeley, when he says that 
these, who " formerly were in the compass of one 
colony many thousands, do not at present amount to 
one, including every age and sex ; and these are all 
servants of the English, who have contributed more 
to destroy their bodies by the use of strong liquors, 

1 Magnalia, b. vii. c. 3, p. 20. 



SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. 95 

than by any means to improve their minds or save 
their souls. This slow poison, jointly operating with 
the small pox and their wars (but much more de- 
structive than both), have consumed the Indians not 
only in our colonies, but also far and wide upon our 
confines. It must be owned, our reformed planters, 
with respect to the natives and their slaves, might 
learn from those of the Church of Rome how it is 
their interest and duty to behave. Both the French 
and Spaniards . . . take care to instruct both the na- 
tives and their negroes in the Popish religion, to the 
reproach of those w 7 ho profess a better." 1 

To supply the spiritual necessities of these our 
sons and daughters, the society addressed itself with 
zeal. And much, under God's blessing, they accom- 
plished in various quarters. Their choice was guided 
to many fit and zealous instruments for the perform- 
ance of this holy work. They sent out clergy, fixed 
and itinerating, to all the districts except Virginia 
and Maryland, which were in some degree supplied 
already through the influence of their old endow- 
ments. Many a soul had cause to bless God for 
the labours of these men ; who, — whether they went 
into the total darkness w T hich had settled down on 
many districts, or preached to the " Foxian Quakers," 
who in their zeal for the " teaching of the inward 
light," were fast losing all remains of Christianity ; 
or amongst the New Englanders, who " consisted 

1 Bishop Berkeley's Sermon before the Society for the Pro- 
pagation of the Gospel, 1731. 



96 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



chiefly of sectaries of many denominations 

too many of whom had worn off a serious sense of 
all religion," 1 — alike gathered in some converts to 
the fold. They w T ere indeed in labours abundant. 
Thus amongst the first was George Keith, who had 
been himself a Quaker, but was now in English holy 
orders, and travelled for two years, between 1702 and 
1705, through all the governments of England, be- 
tween North Carolina and Piscataway river in New 
England, preaching twice on Sundays and week- 
days ; offering up public prayers ; disputing with 
the Quakers; and establishing the Church. " He 
has done," says a letter of the day, " great service to 
the Church wherever he has been, by preaching and 
disputing publicly and from house to house ; he has 
confuted many, especially the Anabaptists, by labour 
and travail night and day, by writing and printing of 
books, mostly at his own cost and charge, giving 
them out freely, which has been very expensive to 
him. By these means people are much awakened, 
and their eyes opened to see the good old way ; and 
they are very well pleased to find the Church at 
last take such care of her children." Two hundred 
" Quakers or Quakerly-affected" converts he himself 
baptised with his own hand, besides " divers other 
dissenters also in Pennsylvania, West and East Jer- 
sey, and New York." 

These successes were not gained without a sharp 

1 Bishop Berkeley's Sermon before the Society for the Pro- 
pagation of the Gospel. 



GEORGE KEITH. 97 

conflict. Bitter and grievous are the charges with 
which the Quakers assailed him. He who sees this 
sect only in the calm into which it has long since 
subsided can scarcely conceive the storm and fury 
with which its early enthusiasm raged. Yet these 
their old writers every where exhibit. The very in- 
dex to the life of Fox thus disposes of the English 
clergy: "They sell the Scriptures — pray by form 
— are hirelings, tithe-takers, robbers of the people — 
not ministers of the gospel — plead for sin = — dread 
the man in leathern breeches — are miserable com- 
forters — reproved in the streets — one pleads for 
adultery — beats friends — are oppressors — perse- 
cutors — the devil's counsellors and lawyers." 

Men of such a temper as these extracts indicate 
would not easily yield up their past predominance, 
and there was no extremity of calumny with which 
they did not visit Keith. They would not hear of 
granting to Episcopalians the most ordinary tolera- 
tion. Thus when Dr. Bray endeavoured to stir up 
the voluntary zeal of Christians at home to make 
some adequate provision for religion in the colo- 
nies, his memorial was met by furious invectives 
from the famous Joseph Wyeth, who declares his 
object to be " to prevent, if I may, the setting up 
and establishing a power of persecuting and impo- 
sition in the colonies, which would be to the dis- 
couragement of the industrious planter," &C. 1 Yet, 
in spite of all assaults, the truth steadily prevailed. 

1 Remarks on Bray's Memorial by J. Wyeth, 1701. 
K 



98 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

*' In Pennsylvania" — was his concluding report — 
" where there was but one Church-of-England con- 
gregation, to wit, at Pennsylvania, of few years' 
standing, there are now five. At Burlington, in New 
Jerse}', a settled congregation ; at Frankfort, in 
Pennsylvania, the Quakers' meeting is turned into a 
church ; and within these two years thirteen minis- 
ters are planted in the northern parts of America." l 
These, and all save the settled clergy of Virginia and 
Maryland, were the missionaries of the Society, then 
newly formed, for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts. To the labours of that venerable 
body, throughout a long season of sluggish inactivity 
and wintry darkness, the colonies of England are in- 
debted for all the spiritual care bestowed upon them 
by the mother-country. Well did its ministers de- 
serve the honoured name of Christian Missionaries. 
Theirs were toils too often unrequited, carried on 
in the face of dangers, loss, and extreme hardships. 
The hardly settled country was still liable to Indian 
incursion. The homesteads of the settlers lay far 
apart from one another, severed by woods, wastes, 
and morasses, across which, in many places, no bet- 
ter roads were yet carried than an Indian path, with 
all its uncertainty and danger. Day by day these 
must be passed by those who discharged in that land 
the office of the ministry. " In many places also 
there were great rivers from one, two, to six, twelve, 
and fifteen miles over, with no ferry. He that would 
1 Narrative of the Rev. George Keith, &c. 



MISSIONARIES. 99 

answer the end of his mission must not only have 
a good horse, but a good boat and a couple of ex- 
perienced watermen." 1 In such a country he often 
had to minister at " places above sixty and seventy 
miles distant, and found it a very laborious mission." 2 
How laborious it was, may be learned from the fol- 
lowing sketch of his mission, sent from North Caro- 
lina to the Society in 1722. " The first Sunday I 
preach, going by land and water some few miles, at 
Esquire Duckenfield's house, large enough to hold 
a great congregation, till we have built a church, 
which is hereafter to be called Society Church. The 
second Sunday I take a journey up to a place called 
Maheim, about forty miles off, where there are abun- 
dance of inhabitants. Third Sunday as the first. 
Fourth, I go up to a place called Meaon, about thirty 
miles journey. Fifth, I cross the sound to Eden Town. 
Sixth, to the chapel on the south shore, about twelve 
miles by water ; and so, the seventh, begin as above, 
except once every quarter I go up to a place called 
Ro-anoke, about eighty miles journey; and the five 
last Sundays of the year the vestries do give me, 
that I may go my rounds and visit the remote parts 
of the country, where the inhabitants live some 150 
miles off ; people who will scarce ever have the 
opportunity of hearing me, or having their children 
baptised, unless I go to them " 3 These were 

1 MS. letters of the S. P. G., quoted in " Early Colonial 
Church," no. iv., by Rev. E. Hawkins. 

2 MS. letters of the S. P. G,, xvi. p. 92. 3 Ibid. 



100 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

their labours ; for which they had no other recom- 
pense than such as have at all times animated mar- 
tyrs and confessors ; fifty pounds a year from the 
Society, and, sometimes at least, but " thirty pounds 
paid during five years in depreciated paper," was the 
stipend of such labourers. Their mode of living 
embraced no luxuries. " The water," says one, de- 
scribing what he saw around him, " was brackish and 
muddy ; their ordinary food was salt pork, but some- 
times beef; their bread, of Indian corn, which they 
are forced, for want of mills, to beat." " My lodg- 
ing," adds another, " was an old tobacco-house, ex- 
posed even in my bed to the injuries and violences of 
bad weather." 1 These were not their severest trials; 
long neglect had hardened the settlers' hearts against 
the truth ; the dying sparks of religion had to be 
fanned into a flame amidst abounding opposition; 
the people were " barbarous and disorderly," they 
impiously profaned the holiest rites, and heaped 
upon these messengers of peace " abuses and con- 
tumely." The sectarians, who had been suffered to 
forestal them, were " very numerous; extremely ig- 
norant, insufferably proud, ambitious, and conse- 
quently ungovernable." 2 

It can cause no surprise to find that some turned 
back in hopeless despondency from such a task ; and 
that others, whose first care was " so to acquit them- 

1 MS. Letters in " Early Colonial Church," ix. p. 273 ; iv. 
p. 105. 

2 Letters, ut supra. 



MISSIONARIES. 101 

selves, in that troublesome and unsettled country, as 
to be able to give a comfortable account of their 
stewardship at that dreadful tribunal where the se- 
crets of all hearts shall be disclosed," soon sunk un- 
der their exhausting labours. 1 Some good no doubt 
they did ; some wanderers in that distant wilderness 
shall one day rise up and call them blessed. Their 
record is on high. Even here they were not always 
without witness. " We shall ever bless Providence,'' 
says the vestry of Carotuch, of one who in that great 
day shall rise out of his distant grave in Carolina, 
"that placed him amongst us, and should be very 
unjust to his character if we did not give him the tes- 
timony of a pious and painful pastor, whose sweet- 
ness of temper, diligence in his calling, and soundness 
of doctrine, hath so much conduced to promote the 
great end of his mission, that we hope the good seed 
God hath enabled him to sow will bear fruit up- 
wards." 2 But for such efforts as these, the very 
name of Christ's Gospel would have perished out of 
that land, and, shameful as it is to England that she 
made no better provision for her colonies, blessed 
was their work, and great, doubtless, will one day 
be their reward who devised and carried out these 
unrequited labours. 

In New England also the Church was rooted 

1 Of one (the Rev. Clement Hall) we read, " It is no exces- 
sive computation, that this good and most laborious missionary 
baptised ten thousand persons." — S. F. G. Report, 1760. 

2 MS. Letters, ut supra. 

K 2 



102 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

amidst storms and opposition. Wherever the mis- 
sionaries came, " the ministers and magistrates of 
the Independents were remarkably industrious, going 
from house to house persuading the people from 
hearing them, and threatening those who would 
attend with imprisonment and punishment." 1 At 
one place a magistrate with officers came to the 
preacher's lodgings, and in the hearing of the people 
read a paper, declaring that " in coming among them 
to establish a new way of worship, he had done an 
illegal thing, and was now forewarned against preach- 
ing any more." Yet here too the good seed was 
not sown in vain ; for in many spots throughout the 
country devout and abiding congregations of the faith- 
ful were gathered under apostolic order. 

The movement began, in spite of all precautions, 
within the walls of Yale College, 2 the stronghold 
of the Independents. So carefully had this been 
fenced from such attempts, that its fundamental law 
prescribed that no student should be allowed in- 
struction in any other system of divinity than such 
as the trustees appointed ; and every one was forced 
to learn the Assembly's Catechism, and other books 
of puritanical authority. 

For a time the dry metaphysics of this school 
excluded all healthier learning. But about the year 
1711, the agent of the colony in England sent over 

1 Humphrey's History of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, p. 339. 

2 Life of Dr. Johnson, by Chandler, p. 24, &c. 



DR. CUTLER. 103 

800 volumes, amongst which were many of the stan- 
dard works of the divines of the English Church. 
These books were eagerly devoured by the hungry 
students ; and amongst the first whom they affected 
were the rector of the college, Dr. Cutler, and two 
of its leading tutors, Messrs. Johnson and Brown. 
They were amongst the most distinguished of the 
Puritan divines ; and their humble adoption of the 
Church's teaching, their abandonment of their en- 
dowments in the college, laying down the ministry 
which without due warrant they had hitherto dis- 
charged, and setting out for England to receive or- 
dination at the bishop's hands, — drew general atten- 
tion to the subject. Brown fell a victim to the small- 
pox in England ; Cutler suffered severely from the 
same disease, but recovering, was, with Johnson, or- 
dained to the priesthood, and with him returned, in 
1723, to the colony, 1 where their influence ere long 
was widely felt. Cutler was settled at Boston, and, 
amidst unceasing persecutions, maintained to the last 
the standard of the faith. For fifty years of patient 
toil Johnson laboured earnestly at Stratford. 

His answers to the queries issued by the Bishop 
of London will follow up this history of his ministry, 
amongst " a people" whom he found " low and poor 
in fortune, yet very serious and well-minded, and 
ready to entertain any instructions that may forward 
them in the paths of virtue and truth and godliness." 

1 Life of Dr. Johnson, p. 36. 



104 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" Q. How long is it since you went over to the 
plantations as a missionary ? 

" A. I arrived upon my charge Nov. 1st, 1723. 

" Q. Have you had any other church before you 
came to that which you now possess ; and if you had, 
what church was it, and how long have you been re- 
moved ? 

" A. I was a teacher in the Presbyterian method 
at West Haven, about 10 miles off from this town: 
but never was in the service of the Established 
Church till the honourable society admitted me into 
their service as missionary. 

" Q. Have you been duly licensed by the Bishop 
of London to officiate as a missionary in the govern- 
ment where you now are ? 

"A.I was licensed by your Lordship to officiate 
as a missionary in this colony of Connecticut. 

" Q. How long have you been inducted into your 
living ? 

" A. I was admitted into the honourable society's 
service in the beginning of January, 1722-3. 

" Q. Are you ordinarily resident in the parish to 
which you have been inducted ? 

"A. I am constantly resident at Stratford, ex- 
cepting the time that I am riding about to preach 
in the neighbouring towns that are destitute of mi- 
nisters. 

" Q. Of what extent is your parish, and how 
many families are there in it ? 

" A. The town is nigh 10 miles square, and has 



MISSION IN CONNECTICUT. 105 

about 250 or 300 families in it, nigh 50 of which 
are of the Established Church. But indeed the Epis- 
copal people of all the towns adjacent esteem them- 
selves my parishioners ; as at Fairfield about 30 
families, the like number at New Town, at West 
Haven about 10, and sundry in other places. 

" Q. Are there any infidels, bond or free, within 
your parish ; and what means are used for their 
conversion ? 

" A. There are nigh 200 Indians in the bounds 
of the town, for whose conversion there are no 
means used, and the like in many other towns ; and 
many negroes that are slaves in particular families, 
some of which go to church, but most of them to 
meeting. 

" Q. How oft is divine service performed in 
your church ; and what proportion of the parishi- 
oners attend it ? 

" A. Service is performed only on Sundays and 
holydays, and many times 100 or 150 people attend 
it, but sometimes not half so many, and sometimes 
twice that number, especially upon the three great 
festivals : and when I preach at the neighbouring 
towns, especially at Fairfield and New Town, I have 
a very numerous audience ; which places, as they 
very much want, so they might be readily supplied 
with ministers from among ourselves, and those the 
best that are educated here, if there was but a bishop 
to ordain them. 

" Q. How oft is the sacrament of the Lord's 



106 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

supper administered ? and what is the usual number 
of communicants ? 

" A. I administer the holy eucharist on the first 
Sunday of every month, to about thirty and some- 
times forty communicants ; and upon the three great 
festivals, to about sixty. But there are nigh one 
hundred communicants here and in the towns adja- 
cent, to whom I administer as often as I can attend 
them. 

" Q. At what times do you catechise the youth 
of your parish ? 

" A. I catechise every Lord's day, immediately 
after evening service, and explain the catechism to 
them. 

" Q. Are all things duly disposed and provided 
in the church for the decent and orderly perform- 
ance of divine service ? 

" A. We have no church ; have begun to build 
one ; but such t is the poverty of the people, that 
we get along but very slowly. Neither have we 
any furniture for the communion, save that which 
Narraganset people lay claim to ; concerning which 
I have written to your lordship by my churchwar- 
den. 

" Q. Of what value is your living in sterling 
money ? and how does it arise ? 

" A. I have 60/. sterling settled on me by the 
honourable society, and receive but very little from 
my poor people, save now and then a few small 
presents. 



MISSION IN CONNECTICUT. 107 

" Q. Have you a house and glebe ? Is your 
glebe in lease, or let by the year, or is it occupied 
by yourself? 

11 A. I have neither house nor glebe. 

M Q. Have you more cures than one ? If you 
have, what are they ? and in what manner served ? 

" A. There are Fairfield, eight miles off; New 
Town, twenty ; Repton, eight ; Westhaven, ten ; 
and New London, seventy miles off; to all which 
places I ride, and preach, and administer the sacra- 
ment, as often as I can ; but have no assistance, 
save that one Dr. Laborie, an ingenious gentleman, 
does gratis explain the catechism at Fairfield ; but 
all these places want ministers extremely. 

" Q. Have you in your parish any public school 
for the instruction of youth ? If you have, is it 
endowed ? and who is the master ? 

" A. The Independents have one or two poor 
schools among them, but there are no schools of 
the Church of England in the town nor colony ; 
for which reason I have recommended my church- 
warden to your lordship and the honourable so- 
ciety. 

" Q. Have you a parochial library ? If you 
have, are the books preserved, and kept in good 
condition? Have you any particular rules and 
orders for the preserving of them? Are those rules 
and orders duly observed ? 

" A. We have no library save the 10L worth 
which the honourable society gave, which I keep 



108 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

carefully by themselves in my study, in the same 
condition as I keep my own.'' 1 

These inroads on their undisturbed sway were 
ill endured by the sturdy Congregationalists. They 
claimed, and endeavoured to exercise, powers rarely 
wielded by any established national communion. 
They called together synods, in which, but for the 
direct interposition of the civil arm, they would 
have enacted canons wherewith to bind men of all 
opinions in the colonies. They assumed the right 
of taxing all for the support of their ministers and 
meeting-houses ; and, wherever they could gain over 
the local governor to their persuasion, proceeded to 
enforce their claim with signal violence. " With me- 
lancholy hearts," the members of a " young church" 
at Wallingford, Connecticut, wrote home to complain, 
" have divers of us been imprisoned, and our goods 
from year to year distrained, for taxes levied for 
the building and supporting meeting-houses ; and 
when we have petitioned our governor for redress, 
notifying to him the repugnance of such actions to 
the laws of England, he hath proved a strong op- 
ponent to us ; but when the other party hath applied 
to him for advice how to proceed against us, he hath 
given sentence to enlarge the gaol and fill it with 
them, i. e. the Church." 2 From words and taunts they 
often passed to actual violence. As late as 1750, an 
old man, who had been long a member of the Church, 

1 July 2, 1729 : Fulham mss. 2 Fulham mss. 



PERSECUTION OF CHURCHMEN. 109 

was whipped publicly for not attending meeting. 
They fined heavily, in the same year, an episcopal 
clergyman of English birth and education, on the 
pretence that he had broken the Sabbath by walking 
home too fast from church ; and at Hertford one of 
the judges of the county court, assisted by the mob, 
pulled down a rising church, and with the stones 
built a mansion for his son. 1 

This spirit was continually breaking out. " We 
are oppressed," writes Mr. Johnson, " and despised 
as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all 
things, unto this day. The Independents boast 
themselves as an establishment, and look down upon 
the poor Church of England with contempt, as a 
despicable, schismatical, and popish communion. 
Their charter is the foundation of all their insolence. 

I cannot but think it very hard that that 

Church, of which our most gracious king is the 
nursing father, should not, in any part of his domi- 
nions, be at least upon a level with the dissenters, 
and free from any oppressions from them. Another 
instance is this. All persons that shall come to in- 
habit in this colony, or are born here, have, by the 
charter, all the liberties and immunities of free and 
natural subjects, as if they were born within the 
realm of England. Notwithstanding which, they 
have made laws to prevent strangers from settling 
among them. As soon as any stranger, though an 

1 History of Connecticut, 1781. 
L 



110 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Englishman, comes into town, he is, according to 
their laws, immediately warned to go out, which 
they always do if he is a Churchman. And it is in 
the breast of the select men of the town whether 
they will accept of any bondsmen for him ; neither 
can he purchase any lands without their leave ; and 
unless they see cause to allow him to stay, they can 
by their laws whip him out of town, if he otherwise 
refuses to depart. By this means several professors 
of our Church, for no other crime but their profes- 
sion, have been prevented from settling here. A 
very worthy man, who had not before been of any 
religion, but was by God's blessing on my endea- 
vours induced to become a very serious conformist 
to our Church, came here to set up a considerable 
trade ; but for want of men to carry on his business 
(occasioned by the forementioned practices), and by 
reason of the discouragement he every way meets 
with from them, he is forced to break up and depart, 
to his unspeakable damage ; and the Church has 
lost a very worthy friend and benefactor." 1 

Such assumed powers they continued to exert, 
although it was shewn them that the lords justices 
in 1725 had expressly declared, " that there was no 
regular establishment of any national or provincial 
Church in these plantations.'' But they were not 

1 Fulham mss. A respectable bookseller at Boston was 
convicted of a libel for publishing Leslie's " Short Method 
with the Deists," — WaterlancTs Letters to Jno. Loveday, Esq., 
vol. xi. 441. 



OPPRESSION OF CHURCHMEN. Ill 

soon daunted ; and even when these continued ex- 
actions had led the sufferers to obtain a fresh opi- 
nion from the law-officers of the crown, which dis- 
tinctly declared that no such colonial rules could 
be enforced on Churchmen, they endeavoured to 
evade its power, by passing an act which exempted 
members of the Church from future payments, but 
at the same time declared, that all who lived at 
more than a mile from any church were not to 
be esteemed as Churchmen. " It were too long 
and tragical," 1 writes another New-England clergy- 
man after the passing of this law, " to repeat the 
several difficulties, and severities, and affronts, which 
our hearers are harassed with in many parts of this 
colony, by rigorous persecutions and arbitrary pecu- 
niary demands, inflicted on the conscientious mem- 
bers of our Church by domineering Presbyterians, 
the old implacable enemies of our Sion's prosperity. 
Here your sons are imprisoned, arrested, and non- 
suited with prodigious cost, contrary to the laws of 
God and man. All professors of the Church of 
England, over whom there is not a particular mis- 
sionary appointed, are obliged to support Presby- 
terian teachers and their meeting-houses — a cruelty, 
injustice, and usurpation, imposed on no other so- 
ciety." 

In the midst of these difficulties from without, 
the injury inflicted on the Church by its imperfect 
spiritual organisation was felt with the greatest bit- 
1 Fulham mss. 



112 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

terness. " The Independents, or Congregational- 
ists," 1 they complain, " here in New England, espe- 
cially in Massachusetts and Connecticut, without any 
regard to the king's supremacy, have established 
themselves by law, and so are pleased to consider 
and treat us of the Church as dissenters. . . . The 
Presbyterians chiefly obtain in the south-western 
colonies, especially in those of New York, Jersey, 
and Pennsylvania, where they have flourishing pres- 
byteries and synods in full vigour ; while the poor 
Church of England in all these colonies is in a low, 
depressed, and very imperfect state, for want of her 
pure primitive episcopal form of Church-govern- 
ment. We do not envy our neighbours, nor in the 
least desire to disquiet them in their several ways ; 
we only desire to be at least upon as good a footing 
as they, and as perfect in our kind as they imagine 
themselves in theirs. And this we think we have 
a right to, both as the episcopal government was 
the only form at first universally established by the 
apostles, and is, moreover, the form established by 
law in our mother country. We therefore cannot 
but think ourselves extremely injured, and in a state 
little short of persecution, while our candidates are 
forced, at a great expense both of lives and fortunes, 
to go a thousand leagues for every ordination, and 
we are destitute of confirmation and a regular go- 
vernment. So that unless we can have bishops, 
especially at this juncture, the Church, and with it 
1 Fulham mss. 



CHURCHMEN IN NEW ENGLAND. 113 

the interest of true religion, must dwindle and greatly 
decay, while we suffer the contempt and triumph of 
our neighbours, who even plume themselves with 
the hopes (as from the lukewarmness and indiffer- 
ence of this miserably apostatising age I doubt they 
have too much occasion to do), that the episcopate 
is more likely to be abolished at home than esta- 
blished abroad ; and, indeed, they are vain enough 
to think that the civil government at home is itself 
really better affected to them than to the Church, 
and even disaffected to that ; otherwise, say they, it 
w r ould doubtless establish episcopacy." 

Yet, in spite of all hindrances, the persecuted body 
grew and multiplied. Sometimes a wealthy resident 
would build a church upon his own estate ; sometimes 
the movement rose amongst the mass of poorer per- 
sons. " I have lately," 1 says one of these reports, 
" been preaching at Newhaven, where the college is, 
and had a considerable congregation, and among them 
several of the scholars, who are very inquisitive 
about the principles of our Church ; and after ser- 
mon ten of the members of the Church there sub- 
scribed 100/. towards the building a church in that 
town, and are zealously engaged about undertaking 
it ; and I hope in a few years there will be a large 
congregation there." "It is with great pleasure," 
says another, " that we see the success of our la- 
bours in the frequent conversions of dissenting teach- 
ers in this country, and the good disposition towards 

1 Fulham mss. 
L 2 



114 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the excellent constitution of our Church growing 
amongst the people wherever the honourable society 
have settled their missions. Sundry others of their 
teachers are likely to appear for the Church ; and 
two very honest and ingenious men have declared 
themselves this winter. . . . We are persuaded that 
it is from a serious and impartial examination of 
things, and the sincere love of truth and sense of 
duty, that they have come over to our communion.'* 
What was the character of the ministry which 
some faithful men were, under all discouragements, 
enabled to maintain, may be gathered from the fol- 
lowing letter i 1 — 

" Being by the favourable providence of God 
arrived in New England, in obedience to your lord- 
ship's commands, I make bold to lay before you the 
state of this colony of Connecticut, to which your 
lordship has licensed me. The people here are 
generally rigid Independents, and have an inveterate 
enmity against the established Church ; but of late 
the eyes of great multitudes are opened to see the 
great error of such an uncharitable, and therefore 
unchristian spirit. This is come to pass chiefly in 
six or seven towns, whereof this of Stratford, w r here 
I reside, is the principal ; and though I am unwor- 
thy and unmeet to be entrusted with such a charge, 
yet there is not one clergyman of the Church of 
England besides myself in this whole colony ; and I 
am obliged, in a great measure, to neglect my cure 

1 Mr, Johnson to the Bishop of London. Fulham mss. 



CONNECTICUT. 115 

at Stratford (where yet there is business enough for 
one minister), to ride about to the other towns (some 
ten, some twenty miles off), where in each of them 
there is as much need of a resident minister as there 
is at Stratford, especially at Newtown and Fairfield. 
So that the case of these destitute places, as well as 
of myself, who have this excess of business, is ex- 
tremely unhappy and compassionable. 

" Now, at the same time, there are a consider- 
able number of very promising young gentlemen — 
five or six I am sure of — and those the best that 
are educated among us, who might be instrumental 
to do a great deal of good to the souls of men, were 
they ordained ; but for want of episcopal ordination 
decline the ministry, and go into secular business; 
being partly from themselves, and partly through 
the influence of their friends, unwilling to expose 
themselves to the danger of the seas and distempers, 
— so terrifying has been the unhappy fate of Mr. 
Brown. 1 So that the fountain of all our misery is 
the want of a bishop, for whom there are many thou- 
sands of souls in this country who do impatiently 
long and pray, and for w r ant do extremely suffer. 

" Permit me to remember the concern you were 
pleased to express for sending a suffragan into this 
country when we were before you, which gave me 
the greater pleasure, because I have the satisfaction 
to know that, so great is your deserved interest with 
his most sacred majesty King George (whom God 
1 See page 103. 



116 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

long preserve), that you might very probably be the 
first, under God and the king, in effecting for us so 
great a blessing. 

" And surfer me further to say, that there is not 
one Jacobite or disaffected person in this colony, nor 
above two are three, that I know of, in America. 
But, for want of a loyal and orthodox bishop to in- 
spect us, we lie open to be misled into the wretched 
maxims of that abandoned set of men, as well as a 
great many other perverse principles. 

" May God, therefore, direct your thoughts, and 
second your pious endeavours, for effecting this or 
any other good work, that may contribute to the 
advancement or enlargement of His Church ; and 
may I have an interest in your compassionate pray- 
ers and benedictions in the great task that lies upon 
me." 1 

It will be useful to trace out more fully the rise 
of one of these churches in the New-England dis- 
trict. 2 At Newtown, in Connecticut, a young and 
zealous Independent teacher, Beach by name, was 
at this time settled over a nourishing Congregational 
society. His ministry had been unusually success- 
ful, and he was himself the idol of his flock. Once 
in three months the Rev. Mr. Johnson visited five 

1 Dated " Stratford in Connecticut, New England, Jan. IS, 
1723-4." 

2 This account is taken from a series of original papers, 
which appeared in 1822-23 in the Churchman's Magazine, 
Hertford, U.S. 



NEW ENGLAND. 117 

episcopalian families then settled in the place : fre- 
quent meetings and earnest discussions between the 
two teachers resulted from these visits ; until Mr. 
Beach began at length to doubt the soundness of his 
former principles. Slowly and cautiously did he 
make up his mind. The first serious alarm w r as 
suggested to his flock, after two or three years of 
patient meditation had passed over him, by his fre- 
quently employing the Lord's Prayer in public wor- 
ship, and even proceeding to read to them whole 
chapters of the word of God. Then he ventured 
to condemn a custom common in their meetings, of 
rising to bow to the preacher as he came in amongst 
them ; instead of wdrich, he begged them to kneel 
down and worship God. This, in the language of 
the day, they declared to be " rank popery," and 
no slight presumption that Mr. Beach would one 
day " turn Churchman ; as did all people," said an 
experienced matron of their body, " who kept on 
reading the Church books." In this, at least, they 
were not deceived ; for in about a year Mr. Beach, 
whose mind was now thoroughly convinced, told the 
people from the pulpit, that, " from a serious and 
prayerful examination of the Scriptures, and of the 
writers of the earliest ages of the Church, and from 
the universal acknowledgment of episcopal govern- 
ment for 1500 years, compared with the recent esta- 
blishment of Presbyterian and Congregational disci- 
pline, he was fully convinced of the invalidity of his 
ordination, and of the unscriptural method of organ- 



118 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ising and governing congregations, and of admitting 
persons to the privileges of church-membership as 
by them practised ; and further, that extempore prayer 
in Christian assemblies was a novelty in the Chris- 
tian Church." He therefore, " in the face of Almighty 
God, had made up his mind to conform to the Church 
of England, as being apostolic in her ministry and 
discipline, orthodox in her doctrine, and primitive in 
her worship." He " affectionately exhorted them to 
weigh the subject well ; engaged to provide for the 
due administration of the sacraments while he was 
absent from them, and spoke of his intended return 
to them from England in holy orders." 

So greatly was he beloved, that a large propor- 
tion of his people seemed ready to acquiesce in his 
determination. But such a threatened defection the 
Congregational teachers of the neighbourhood could 
not see with unconcern. They set themselves at 
once to stir up the embers of intestine strife against 
their awakening brother, and at length assembled 
at Newtown, in 1732, and in spite of Mr. Beach's 
remonstrances, proceeded to depose him from the 
ministry. From this sprang up a printed discussion 
between Mr. Beach and his deposers ; carried on 
with kindness, sobriety, and force of reasoning on 
his part, and with no little harshness of invective 
upon theirs. 

Thus, in one of these attacks, after many charges 
against Mr. Beach, the author closes with a general- 
condemnation of the English Church, as an " ille- 



PURITAN OPPOSITION. 119 

gitimate daughter of the harlot of Babylon ;" and 
describes her bishops as " the most vile and wretched 
set of beings that ever disgraced human nature." 

Nor was this all. Under the auspices of the So- 
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, Mr. Beach 
had opened a mission to a small tribe of native In- 
dians. God had blessed his labours, and amongst 
these despised men a little flock was being gathered 
into Christ's true fold. This the Congregational 
teachers could not endure. The Indians were shrewd 
enough to meet their occasional attempts at conver- 
sion with the plea of their own multiform divisions. 
" We value not your gospel, which shews so many 
roads to Kicktang (God) : some of them must be 
crooked, and lead to holbamockow" (the evil spirit). 
But the sectarian teachers could not endure that 
Episcopalians should convert these heathens to the 
truth. They sent, therefore, an agent amongst Mr. 
Beach's flock, with ribald ballads, suited to the 
native taste, decrying him and all his efforts. And 
when the good man next visited his native flock, 
instead of receiving from the Sachem the calumet 
of peace, and finding a circle of attentive listeners, 
eager to drink in his words, he was met by the 
taunts and derision which the heathen had been too 
industriously taught. 

These violent proceedings defeated in great mea- 
sure their intended purpose. The claims of the 
Church became the subject of general discussion. 
The eyes of many were opened ; and from the first 



120 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

a small but growing company clave to Mr. Beach. 
Soon after, he set sail for England, bearing with him 
the following testimonial from his brethren in Con- 
necticut. 

" Mr. Beach/' it says, " had his education at 
Yale College, where he made uncommon proficiency 
in learning, and hath, since he left it, taken care to 
improve himself in divinity and other useful studies, 
and when he entered into the dissenting ministry 
(which was indeed almost the unavoidable consequence 
of his education and want of proper books) he was 
thought the most proper person to oppose the growth 
of the Church in Newtown, on account of the good 
opinion that every one had of his learning and piety, 
and was accordingly placed there, — though he never 
did any thing to the Church's prejudice. But hav- 
ing since, by his neighbourhood to some of us, had 
the advantage of better books and information, he 
hath found it his duty to quit their service and come 
over to our communion, whereby he hath done great 
service to the Church in these parts, and we doubt 
not will always be an honour to it, if your lordship 
shall think fit to ordain him, and the honourable 
society to admit him into their service. And as we 
are well assured his labours will be of great use 
here, so we beg leave to assure your lordship of his 
firm attachment to the present government as esta- 
blished in the illustrious house of Hanover. Upon 
the whole, therefore, we humbly hope your lordship 
and the honourable society will think fit to empower 



whitefield's visit. 121 

and employ him, who for the peace of his conscience 
hath left the possessions he enjoyed, and now taken 
a long and dangerous voyage, melancholy in itself, 
but rendered more so by his leaving his wife and 
children." 

The prayer of his brethren was granted, and he 
returned in holy orders to Connecticut. In a little 
while a church was built for him ; in which, and in 
the neighbouring town of Reading, he ministered 
as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel, to a faithful and devoted flock. 

In this state things continued till the time of 
Mr. Whitefleld's visit to New England. Here, as 
elsewhere, his preaching produced wonderful effects. 
He found the flame of piety already burning low 
amongst the Independent congregations ; for in the 
institutions of no separatists from the Church has the 
gift of enduring spiritual vitality been found. He 
boldly charged them with having left " the platform" 
of their ancient doctrines, and reviled them in his 
sermons, under the unwelcome titles of " hirelings 
and dumb dogs, half beasts and half devils." He en- 
deavoured to revive the ancient spirit by a series of 
violent excitements. The Independent teachers be- 
took themselves to penal inflictions, subjecting itine- 
rants to heavy penalties, and excluding them from 
the protection of the laws. But the flame only 
burned the fiercer for this opposition. Fanaticism 
in its maddest forms triumphed for a while ; intro- 
ducing new divisions in its train, and leading many 

M 



122 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

into the open profession of Antinomian tenets. 
These scenes are thus described in the letter of an 
eye-witness. 1 

" The duties and labours of my mission are ex- 
ceedingly increased by the surprising enthusiasm, or 
what is worse, that rages among us ; the centre of 
which is the place of my residence. Since Mr. 
Whitefield was in this country there have been a 
great number of vagrant preachers, the most remark- 
able of whom is Mr. Davenport, of Long Island, who 
came to New London in July, pronounced their mi- 
nisters unconverted, and by his boisterous behaviour 
and vehement crying, i Come to Christ,' many were 
struck, as the phrase is, and made the most terrible 
and affecting; noise, that was heard a mile from the 
place. He came to this society, acted in the same 
manner five days, and was followed by great num- 
bers ; some could not endure the house, saying that 
it seemed to them more like the infernal regions than 
the place of worshipping the God of heaven. Many 
after the amazing horror and distress that seized 
them, received comfort (as they term it), and five or 
six of these young men in this society are continually 
going about, especially in the night, converting, as 
they call it, their fellow-men. Two of them, as their 
minister and they affirm, converted above two hun- 
dred in an Irish town about twenty miles back in the 
country. Their meetings are almost every night in 
this and the neighbouring parishes, and the most 
1 To the Bishop of London. Fulham mss. 



EXCITEMENT OF WHTTEFIELD's VISIT. 123 

astonishing effects attend them ; screechings, faint- 
ings, convulsions, visions, apparent death for twenty 
or thirty hours, actual possessions with evil spirits, 
as they own themselves ; this spirit in all is remark- 
ably bitter against the Church of England. Two, 
who were struck, and proceeded in this way of ex- 
horting and praying, until they were actually pos- 
sessed, came to me and asked the questions they all 
do : Are you born again ? Have you the witness of 
the Spirit ? They used the same texts of Scripture 
as the rest, taught the same doctrines, called me 
Beelzebub the prince of devils, and during their pos- 
session burnt a large amount of property. They 
have since both been to me, asked my forgiveness, 
and bless God that He has restored them to the 
spirit of a sound mind. 

" There are at least twenty or thirty of these lay 
holders-forth within ten miles of my house, who hold 
their meetings every night in the week in some place 
or other, excepting Saturday night ; and incredible 
pains are taken to seduce and draw away the mem- 
bers of my church ; but, blessed be God, we still 
rather increase." 1 

The result of this sudden excitement was by no 
means favourable to the ruling sect. " The Inde- 
pendents or Congregationalists," Mr. Johnson reports, 
" are miserably harassed with controversies amongst 
themselves, at the same time that they unite against 
the Church. One great cause of their quarrels is 
1 Fulham mss. 



124 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the Arminian, Calvinistic, Antinomian, and enthu- 
siastic controversies, which run high amongst them, 
and create great feuds and factions ; and these chiefly 
occasion the great increase of the Church, as they 
put thinking and serious persons upon coming over 
to it, from no other motive than the love of truth 
and order, and a sense of duty ; at which they are 
much enraged, though they themselves are the chief 
occasion of it." 1 " When I came here there were 
not a hundred adult persons of the Church in this 
whole colony, 2 whereas now there are considerably 
more than two thousand, and at least five or six 
thousand young and old ; and since the progress of 
this strange spirit of enthusiasm, it seems daily very 
much increasing." 3 

From such fierce divisions many learned to value 
the peaceful and holy shelter of the Church ; and 
Mr. Beach received so large an accession to his 
charge, that his church would not hold two-thirds of 
those who joined him. Not a few of these were of 
the first families within the colony, and a new and 
spacious building was soon erected for him. The 
same causes led to the building of eight other 
churches within different neighbouring towns, and to 
the best amongst the Independent teachers joining 
his communion and receiving holy orders. 

Here was plainly the finger of God. In the 

1 Letter of the Rev. S. Johnson to the Bishop of London. 
Fulham mss. 

2 Stratford, in New England. 3 Fulham mss. 



CONNECTICUT. 125 

violent divisions of those times, as well as in the 
deadness which preceded them, were the elements 
of that Socinian leaven which has since worked so 
fatally throughout those parts; leading in 1821 to 
the choice of the chaplain to the national legisla- 
ture from the ranks of that most unhappy sect. Yet, 
in establishing the Church, these very evils were 
so overruled by God as to furnish their own anti- 
dote. 

In Connecticut her roots took a deeper hold in 
the soil, from the action of the storms amongst which 
she had grown up. In no part of America was her 
communion so pure and apostolical as here. Her 
clergy were, for the most part, natives — men of 
earnest piety, of settled character, and well esta- 
blished in Church principles ; and so greatly did she 
flourish, that at the outbreak of the troubles which 
ended in the separation of the colonies and mother 
country, there was every reason for believing that 
another term of twenty years' prosperity, such as 
she had last enjoyed, would have brought full half 
the population of the state within her bosom. 

A contemporary writer, professing himself " un- 
able to recollect the names of the multifarious reli- 
gious sects" then existing in Connecticut, adds the 
following list " of a few of the most considerable." 

Congregations. 
Episcopalians . . . . . .73 

Scotch Presbyterians .... 1 

Sandemanians ...... 1 

M 2 



126 



AMERICAN CHURCII. 



Sandemaniaiis Basta: 

Lutherans 

Baptists . 

Seven- day do. 

Quakers . 

Davisonians 

Separatists 

Rogereens 

Bowlists . 

Old Lights 

New Lights 



ongregations. 

1 

1 

6 

1 

4 

1 
40 

1 

1 
80 
87 



So greatly had the Church gained upon the sects 
around her, through the zeal and piety which here 
adorned her members. 

But this is far the brightest spot in the whole 
picture. Here and there, indeed, throughout the 
continent, individual zeal imparted life and warmth 
to separate congregations. But altogether there are 
few of the marks of the Church Catholic impressed 
in that age upon the English branch of it settled in 
America. Seldom, if ever, was she zealous and full 
of love and holy union inwardly, and to those with- 
out " terrible as an army with banners." There was 
a general languor of devotion ; sects and divisions 
multiplied, and often gained upon the Church ; her 
own sons grew careless or apostates, and scarcely 
any thing was done to bring the Indian tribes around 
her to the knowledge of her Lord. All this may be 
traced most easily in the history of Virginia, where 
from different causes it was most signally developed. 



WHITEFIELD IN VIRGINIA. 127 

A hasty sketch of such a painful subject will be all 
that is required. 

From a contemporary writer 1 it appears, that in 
the year 1722 there were in Virginia not fewer than 
seventy churches, with dwelling-houses and glebes 
for the incumbent in almost every parish. Dissent 
was scarcely know r n ; since it is still a matter of dis- 
pute, whether there were in the whole country three 
meetings of Quakers and one of Presbyterians, or 
whether one of Quakers stood alone. " For one 
hundred and fifty years," Dr. Hawks complains, 
" the Church had been fixed in Virginia, and yet the 
state of religion was deplorably low." " Many of 
the clergy were unfitted for their stations ;" and the 
laity, from " loose principles and immoral practices, 
were often a scandal to their country and religion." 
Here and there a light sprung up, as in the case 
of Morgan Morgan, a humble and zealous layman, 
through whose labours the faith was planted in the 
newer western settlements, amongst a population 
composed chiefly of Presbyterian emigrants from 
Ireland. It was in the year 1740 that he erected 
the first church on the south side of the Potomac, 
in the valley of Virginia. But such men were rare ; 
while for the most part all w r as lethargy. 

In this state Mr. Whitefield found religion in the 
colony. As an English clergyman he was readily 
received, and at the desire of Dr. Blair, then com- 
missary for the Bishop of London, he preached at 
1 Present State of Virginia, by Rev. Hugh Jones. 



128 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the seat of government and elsewhere. He was 
here far more restrained, and proportionably useful, 
than amidst the wild sectarian wastes of the New 
England colonies. His efforts kindled some zeal 
amongst a lukewarm people ; but his addresses, which 
were made too exclusively to the mere emotions 
of his hearers, and not sufficiently directed to the 
general revival of a drooping Church, laid few T or 
no foundations for a really permanent result. The 
feelings of the moment passed away with the pass- 
ing voice which had awakened them ; and left, it 
must be feared, the hearts which they had ineffec- 
tually visited even colder than they were before. No 
lasting blessings seem to have followed from these 
labours. Soon after his visit, earnest but irregular 
attempts for the diffusion of religion were made 
throughout the eastern districts by a pious layman 
of the name of Morris. These, after a little, led to 
the settlement in various parts of Presbyterian teach- 
ers from New England. At first the local govern- 
ment objected to their entrance ; but under the pro- 
visions of the act of toleration they made good their 
footing, and by a more apparent earnestness drew 
away many from the Church. With them the Ana- 
baptists, a few of whom had come long since from 
England, now rose into notice. They had recently 
been strengthened by allies from Maryland ; and 
they now appeared in force, ready to join with any 
adversary of the Church. 

The time of their appearance was propitious for 



VIRGINIAN ENDOWMENTS. 129 

their purpose. The endowment of the clergy of 
the colony, from very early times, consisted of a 
certain fixed weight of tobacco, the staple produce 
of the land. Some years before this time, a fail- 
ing harvest had so greatly raised its price, as to 
make this mode of payment burdensome, and a 
fixed money-payment had been substituted for it 
until the scarcity was over. To this expedient 
another threatened failure of the crop shortly after- 
wards again inclined the colonial legislature, But 
the act was disallowed at home, and the clergy dis- 
puted its authority by legal process. The courts 
of law decided in their favour ; but when dam- 
ages came to be assessed, the jury, predisposed by 
popular impression, and wrought on by a sud- 
den burst of eloquence from the opposing counsel, 
awarded such as were merely nominal. The court, 
under the same influence, refused another trial ; and 
the clergy lost alike their rights and the little which 
remained to them of the affections of the people. 
So rapid at this time was the progress of dissent, 
that a few years later it claimed, as belonging to its 
ranks, two-thirds of all the population. All things, 
indeed, were out of joint. " In a country containing 
not less than half a million souls (all of them pro- 
fessing the Christian religion, and a majority of them 
members of the Church of England, living imder 
British government and laws, and in general thriving, 
if not opulent), there was yet not a single college, 
and only one school with an endowment adequate to 



130 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the maintenance of even a common mechanic. 1 Two- 
thirds of all the little education of the colony was 
given by indented servants or transported felons. 

The causes of this state of things are w T ell worth 
examination. Some of them were evidently peculiar 
to Virginia, in which and in Maryland alone such 
questions on the rights of property could have 
arisen. But in other parts matters were not, on 
the whole, much better. No where was the Church 
flourishing and spreading. Every where division 
multiplied. Baptists, Presbyterians, Moravians, Me- 
thodists, Tunkers, Shakers, Quakers, Socinians, and 
Infidels, grew daily in importance, and shed on 
every side of them the fruitful seed of further sub- 
division. In 1729, Berkeley found at Newport, in 
Rhode Island, " a mixed kind of inhabitants, con- 
sisting of many sects and subdivisions of sects ; four 
sorts of Anabaptists, besides Presbyterians, Quakers, 
Independents, and many of no profession at all." 2 
To the northward and the eastward of Maryland 
there were but eighty parochial clergymen ; and all 
of these, except in the towns of Boston and New- 
port, New York and Philadelphia, were missionaries 
sent out from England by the Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel. 

The best calculation of the numbers of the white 
population, and of the various religious persuasions 
on the continent of North America, transmitted to 

1 Boucher's American Revolution, pp. 183, 184. 

2 Berkeley's Letters, p. xxxvii. 



SPIRITUAL STATISTICS. 



131 



the Bishop of London, 1 in 1761, gave the following 
results : — 



North American Cokttnkkt. 



Newfoundland and Xova Scotia 
Four New-England Colonies 
New Hampshire . . 30,000 
Massachusetts . . 250.000 
Rhode Island . . . 35,000 
Connecticut . . . 120,000 



New York . 
New Jersey- 
Pennsylvania 
Maryland . 
Virginia . . 
North Carolina 
South Carolina 
Georgia . . . 



Total 



Church 
People. 



Independ-: — 
entB - : Jews, Pa- 

I pista, &C. 



25,000 13.000 6,000 i 6,000 



435.000 

100,000 

iOO.OOO 

2S0.000 
60,000 ; 
80,000 : 
36,000 : 
22,000} 
6,0003 . 



40.000 
25,000 
16,000 
65, 000* 
36.000 
60,000 
18,000 

20,000 



1,144,000 293.000 



250,000 145,000 
20.000 55,000 
40.000 ■ 44,000 I 
45,000 170.000t 
6,000 j 18,000J 



10.000 
9,000 

5,000 



10.000 
9,000 

3,000 



391,000 j460,000 



* This includes 40,000 Swedes and German Lutherans, who reckon 
their service, &c. the same as that of the Church. 

t About a third of these are Quakers, about 10.000 Papists, the rest 
Germans of various sects. 

X Chiefly Papists. 



Some general cause there must have been for 
such a state of things. The power of Christ's truth 
could not be worn out. That Church which had 
hitherto subdued all people, rude or polished, against 
whom she had gone forth, had she lost her empire 
over men's hearts ? She who had conquered the 
conquerors of the great Roman empire, and gathered 
one and another of the hordes of Gothic and Teu- 



1 Fulliam mss. 



132 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tonic blood, who had invaded her dominion, into the 
faith and hope of the people whom they conquered, — 
she seemed in the West not only to have lost her 
subduing might, but to be powerless even to retain 
her hold upon her own. 

It is not very difficult to find the cause for this 
great difference. Her planting in America had 
been after a new and unknown manner. Heretofore 
the great aim of her founders, in any country, had 
been to make her truly indigenous — to reproduce 
her out of the people amongst whom she had come. 
For this end she was sent forth complete, — a living 
germ, with all the powers of reproduction in herself. 
To this, as the greatest work of Christians, the bold- 
est and truest hearts were summoned ; and he who 
won and held a band of converts to her Lord, was 
consecrated bishop of the Church amongst them, if 
he went not out in that holy character. Thus he 
could at once ordain new pastors and evangelists 
from amongst his native converts. Through them 
he could extend his influence ; at their mouths the 
truths he taught, coming to the hearers in the beloved 
tongue of their fathers' land, were listened to with 
new readiness. Their blood, if persecution arose, was 
at once the seed of new converts ; the Church was 
perfect and complete, and she went on conquering and 
to conquer. Such was the equipment of Pothinus 
of old, when, with Irenaeus as his deacon, he went 
from Asia to sow amongst the Gauls the seed of 
the kingdom ; and the Church of Lyons was his 



WANT OF NATIVE CLERGY. 133 

glorious harvest. So Boniface went forth from 
this land of ours, to become " the apostle of Ger- 
many.'* But wholly unlike this was our equip- 
ment of the Church in America. We sent out in- 
dividual teachers, with no common bond of visible 
unity, no directing head, no power of ordaining ; we 
maintained them there like the garrison of a foreign 
Church ; and the consequence was, what might have 
been foretold, the Church languished and almost 
passed away. To this fault the religious evils of 
that land may be distinctly traced. Throughout the 
northern colonies the scattered missionaries, whom 
the venerable society sent out and paid, — who had no 
connexion with each other, no common head, and no 
co-operation in their work, — were the representatives 
of the body of foreigners across the ocean who sup- 
ported and directed them. And even in the southern 
colonies, where the Church was established with pro- 
vincial endowments, the want of bishops produced 
the same effect. There was no power of obtaining 
ordination in America ; hence any young Americans, 
who desired to enter the ministry, must cross the 
Atlantic to receive holy orders. This was both costly 
and perilous. One in five, it has been calculated, of 
all who set out returned no more. 1 Hence in a new 

1 The small-pox was exceedingly fatal to Americans who 
visited England. Within a very few years, seven candidates for 
orders from the northern colonies died during their absence 
from America. Amongst these was the son of Dr. Johnson, 
mentioned above, p. 103, who sunk under the small-pox. 

N 



134 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

country, where every sort of employment abounded, 
few parents devoted their children to the work of 
the ministry. The earliest bent was given in a con- 
trary direction. The native candidates were there- 
fore few ; whilst of those who were sent out from 
England, some, in spite of every care at home, would 
be those whose characters were most unfit for such 
a post, — who proposed themselves for that peculiar 
service because they desired to escape the vigilance 
of episcopal control. This brought a reproach upon 
the priesthood ; and the proper check on clerical 
unfitness being thus wanting, the people began to 
substitute another. Upon any vacancy, the governor 
and commissary recommended a successor to a Vir- 
ginian benefice. The vestry received the minister 
so sent, and he then officiated in their church. If 
they chose, they might present him for induction to 
the governor ; and when inducted, he had full and 
legal possession of the benefice. But the common 
practice was to receive the minister, and give him in 
possession the fruits of the benefice, without present- 
ing him for due induction ; and then the vestry could 
dismiss him when they chose. This seems to have 
been meant at first to guard the people from un- 
worthy pastors. From the nature of the case, there 
could be scarcely any other check on such men. 
The Bishop of London, indeed, had his commissaries 
in America ; but their limited power and derived 
authority could do little when their principal was on 
the other side of the Atlantic. Nor was the power 



bp. of London's colonial jurisdiction. 135 

of the Bishop of London himself over those distant 
provinces certain or well defined. Whence it had 
first sprung is exceedingly uncertain. The most 
probable account attributes it to the hearty concur- 
rence of the then Bishop of London in the earliest 
schemes of the Virginian company for establishing 
the Church amongst their settlers. This led to his 
being requested to find and appoint their first clergy ; 
and from this practice there gradually grew up a 
notion that they were in some way in his diocese. 
Thus, Bishop Compton wrote, in March 1676, " As 
the care of your churches, with the rest of the planta- 
tions, lies upon me as your diocesan, so, to discharge 
that trust, I shall omit no occasions of promoting 
their good and interest." 1 

Such the practice continued until the appointment 
of Bishop Gibson to the see of London, Upon in- 
quiring into the source of his authority, he was told, 
that, though no strict ecclesiastical title could be 
found, yet by an order in council in the reign of 
Charles the Second, the colonies were made a part 
of the see of London. For this order he, being a 
careful man, caused a diligent search to be made, 
when he discovered that none such existed. Find- 
ing, therefore, no ground whatever on which to rest 
his claim of jurisdiction, he declined even to appoint 
a commissary. Thus the colonies were separated 
from all episcopal control. But after a while, having 
obtained a special commission from the crown, com- 
1 Fulham mss. 



136 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

mitting this charge to him, and thinking it better, 
under all the circumstances of the case, to act under 
this authority than to abandon them entirely, he 
began to discharge it with his usual fidelity. Yet 
even then he felt that his hold upon those distant 
parts was little what it should be, if he were indeed 
to deem himself their bishop. Every line of his first 
address to them 1 breathes this spirit. 

" Being called," he tells them, " by the provi- 
dence of God to the government and administration 
of the diocese of London, by which the care of the 
churches in the foreign plantations is also devolved 
upon me, I think it my duty to use all proper means 
of attaining a competent knowledge of the places, 
persons, and matters entrusted to my care. And as 
the plantations, and the constitutions of the churches 
there, are at a far greater distance, and much less 
known to me, than the affairs of my diocese here at 
home, so it is the more necessary for me to have 
recourse to the best and most effectual methods of 
coming to a right knowledge of the state and condi- 
tion of them. Which knowledge I shall not fail, by 
the grace of God, faithfully to employ to the service 
of piety and religion, and to the maintenance of order 
and regularity in the Church." He then furnishes 
a paper of inquiries, and promises his " best advice 
and assistance, in order to the successful and com- 
fortable discharge of their ministerial function." 

This authority, shadowy as it was, expired with 

1 Dated Nov. 2, 1723. 



LACK OF DISCIPLINE. 137 

the life of Bishop Gibson ; since the commission 
under which he acted was granted only to himself 
personally, and not to his successors. 1 How little it 
sufficed to maintain any form of discipline was shewn 
in the fearful laxity of conduct which was visible on 
every side. Thus, at this very time, the marriage- 
licenses, which, by a first stretch of principle, had 
been granted to any " Protestant minister," instead 
of the authorised clergy, were now " expounded to 
intend a justice of the peace, as being a minister of 
justice, and a Protestant by religion ;" 2 and they ac- 
cordingly took upon them to marry all applicants at 
their own pleasure. No one felt this want of disci- 
pline more keenly than the Bishop of London. But 
it was beyond his power to remedy the evil ; and, as 
is commonly the case where the true safeguard pro- 
vided by the Church is carelessly neglected, men 
began to invent others for themselves. Thus, in the 
state of Maryland, where the scandal of ill-living 
clergvmen had risen to a fearful height, acts were 

Ok O 7 

passed by the provincial assemblies subjecting the 
clergy to the jurisdiction of a board of laymen, or 
mingled laymen and clergymen. It was in vain that 

1 Bishop Sherlock, in 1749, tells Dr. Johnson that he will 
appoint a commissary " as soon as I take a proper anthority 
from the king, which I have hitherto delayed, in hopes of see- 
ing another and better settlement of ecclesiastical affairs in the 
country I am persuaded that no bishop residing in Eng- 
land ought to have, or will willingly undertake the province." 
—Life of Dr. Johnson, pp. 131-2. 

2 Fulham mss. 

N 2 



138 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

men of the highest character amongst the clergy ex- 
claimed against a proposal so utterly at variance with 
all ecclesiastical principle. The pressing evil was 
keenly felt ; and in the absence of the true Church- 
remedy, they sought another for themselves. This 
law they would have carried into operation, if it had 
not been defeated by the opposition of the governor 
on grounds of state-policy. 

So also it was in Virginia. To secure that which 
lawful authority should have provided for them, the 
vestries at first desired to try their pastors before 
they confirmed their full appointment. And this, as 
was natural, soon grew into a great abuse. The 
vestry were now r the masters of the clergy. On the 
most paltry or unworthy grounds they changed their 
minister. If he testified with boldness against any 
prevalent iniquity, the people whom his zeal offended 
soon rid themselves of so disagreeable a monitor. 
Hence ecclesiastical appointments in the colony grew 
into disrepute. Few would accept such uncertain 
stations ; and those few were led to do so by ne- 
cessity. Thus the clergy declined both in num- 
bers and character. From this sprang another evil. 
The lack of clergy led to a general employment of 
lay readers. These lay readers were naturally taken 
from a lower class than the ordained clergy ; they 
were also natives. It was not difficult for them to 
insinuate themselves into the regard of the congre- 
gations which they served ; and it happened fre- 
quently that the benefice was kept unfilled in order 



SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA. 139 

to prolong the more acceptable services of the un- 
ordained reader. 

Thus at every hand the Church was weakened. 
The laity were robbed of the sacraments, and led to 
choose their pastors on unworthy grounds. The 
clergy who came out were those least fitted for a 
work which, far more than that of ordinary stations, 
required the highest gifts of holy zeal and know- 
ledge. For in Virginia causes of moral and social 
corruption were at work which nothing but the holy 
faith in its utmost vigour could counteract. From 
an early time the curse of slavery had rested upon 
Virginian society. Conditional servitude, under co- 
venants, had been coeval with the first settlement of 
the colony. The emigrant was bound to render to 
his master the full cost of his transportation. This 
led to a species of traffic in those who could be 
persuaded to embark. The speculation proved so 
lucrative that numbers soon took part in it ; since 
men might be imported at a cost of eight pounds, 
who would afterwards be sold in the colony for forty 
pounds. 1 So established became this evil, that white 
men were purchased on shipboard as horses are 
bought at a fair. 2 This, under the rule of the Par- 
liament, was the fate of the royalist prisoners of the 
battle of Worcester. To this was added, in 1620, 
negro slavery, which differed from indented servi- 

1 Smith, i. 105. Bullock's Virginia, p. 14. quoted by Ban- 
croft. 

2 Bancroft, i. 177, 



{ 



140 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ture in being perpetual instead of for a term of years, 
and in the degradations which the distinctive features 
of the race of Ham soon associated with it. Mar- 
riage was early forbidden, under ignominious penal- 
ties, between the races of the master and the slave j 1 
and the grievous social evils which follow the dis- 
honour of humanity sprung up freely around. " All 
servants," 2 was the enactment of 1670, "not being 
Christians, imported into this country by shipping, 
shall be slaves ;" yet it was added, " conversion to 
the Christian faith doth not make free." The death 
of a slave from extremity of correction was not ac- 
counted felony ; and it was made lawful for " per- 
sons pursuing fugitive coloured slaves to wound or 
even to kill them." 

The evils which such laws attest and aggravate 
were yet more exasperated by the whole character 
of the first centuries of Virginian life. Whilst the 
New-England settlers were early gathered into vil- 
lages, and even towns, the Virginian landowners 
dwelt apart from one another, each one a petty des- 
pot over his indented servants and his slaves. Bridle 
ways were their roads ; 3 bridges were unknown ; and 
the widely scattered population met at most but once 
on the Lord's day for worship, and often not at all ; 
while the remoter families could rarely find their 
way through the mighty forests to the distant walls 
of their church. Education was almost neglected. 

1 Henry, i. 146, quoted by Bancroft. 

2 Bancroft, ii. 193. 3 Ibid. ii. 212, &c. 



WANT OF BISHOPS. 141 

"Everyman," said the governor, in 1671, l " instructs 
his children according to his ability ;" and what this 
instruction was, may be gathered from another of 
his sayings : " I thank God there are no free schools 
nor printers, and I hope we shall not have them •■ 
these hundred years." 

In such a state of things religion could not flou- 
rish, and a ministry already depressed was sure to 
sink into absolute debasement. The Church was 
best served by those ministers, as we have seen, 
whom she had gained over in New England from the 
ranks of Congregational dissent ; for these were na- 
tives of the land, trained to the work, and men of 
earnest zeal and self-denying love of truth. But 
here, too, the want of bishops and the whole Church- 
system was lamentably felt. The sectaries around 
them possessed each their own system, such as it 
was, in perfection : they could appoint and send out 
teachers ; gather in the young and active to the 
work ; hold their synods and conventions ; act, in 
short, as a living and organised body. " It is hard," 
was the complaint of Churchmen at the time, " that 
these large and increasing dispersions of the true 
Protestant English Church should not be provided 
with bishops, when our enemies, the Roman Catholics 
of France and Spain, find their account in it to pro- 
vide them for theirs. Even Canada, which is scarce 
bigger than some of our provinces, has her bishop ; 
not to mention the little whimsical sect of Moravians, 
who also have theirs." 2 " The poor Church of 
1 Bancroft, ii. 192. 2 Fulham mss. 



142 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

America is worse off in this respect than any of her 
adversaries. The Presbyterians have come a great 
way to lay hands on one another (though, after all, 
they had as good stay at home, for the good they 
do) ; the Independents are called by their sovereign 
lord the people : the Anabaptists and Quakers pre- 
tend to the Spirit ; but the poor Church has nobody 
upon the spot to comfort or confirm her children, — 
nobody to ordain such as are willing to serve ; there- 
fore they fall back into the hands of the dissenters." 1 
These complaints were but too well founded. Only 
that communion which clave close to the apostolic 
model was on all sides cramped and weakened : 
without the centre of visible unity — without the 
direction of common efforts — without the power of 
confirming the young, whilst it taught the young 
that there was a blessing in the very rite which it 
withheld from them — without the power of ordina- 
tion, whilst it maintained that it was needful for a 
true succession of the priesthood, — declaring, by its 
own teaching, its maimed and imperfect condition, 
and feeling it practically at every turn. 

There is a dispute amongst our clergy, says Mr. 
Johnson, 2 applying for directions from the Bishop of 
London, " relating to the exhortation after baptism 
to the godfather, to bring the child to the bishop to 
be confirmed. Some wholly omit this exhortation, 
because it is impracticable ; others insert the words 
" if there be opportunity/' because our adversaries 
object it as a mere jest to order the godfather to 
1 Fulham mss. - Ibid. 



NEED OF THE EPISCOFATE. 143 

bring the child to the bishop when there is not one 
within a thousand leagues of us, which is a reproach 
that we cannot answer." 

At any time, and under any circumstances, such 
a state of things must have been widely and fatally 
pernicious. But in this case the injury was even 
more than usually great. Many causes had been in 
operation, from the era of the Reformation, which 
tended to make the bishops the only external centres 
of vigorous and united action in the English Church. 
From changes in the body politic, from the weak- 
ening of her synods and councils, and from the lone- 
liness of her condition, almost every element of out- 
ward strength and visible unity was now centred in 
the episcopal office. The clergy, therefore, of such 
a Church, when set down in the far West, without a 
bishop nearer than the see of London, were at once 
reduced to the utmost extremity of weakness. They 
had no other lines of strength upon which to fall 
back to rally and re-form their broken ranks ; and 
they became thus single-handed combatants, instead 
of marching in combined phalanx against a common 
scattered foe. Deeply was this felt by the most 
earnest and spiritual amongst them ; and moving, 
oftentimes, were their entreaties to the Church, which 
had thus put them forth unfitted for their charge, to 
send them over the succession of the apostolical 
episcopate. 

Year after year their lamentations and entreaties 
crossed the Atlantic. " We beg," l they write at one 

1 From New London in Connecticut. Fulham mss, 



144 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

time to the Bishop of London, " your fatherly com- 
passion on our truly pitiable circumstances ; we are 
forty-four miles from the nearest Church of England 

to us, the incumbent of which hath visited us 

four times a year. There have been several adults 
and infants baptised amongst us, ... . and a church 
raised which we hope to have finished by the next 
fall. We have never, since our first settlement, had 
the Gospel of Christ, or its comfortable sacraments, 
regularly administered to us by any episcopal minis- 
ter ; whereby sundry persons bred up in the Church 
of England at home, others that have been baptised 
here and become conformists, and a greater number 
still strongly inclined to conformity, do labour under 
that last and most grievous unhappiness of being left 
ourselves and leaving our posterity in this wilderness, 
excluded, as wild uncultivated trees, from the saving 
benefits of a transplantation into your soundest part 
of the Holy Catholic Church.' , 

Similar appeals were sent from all parts of the 
Continent. " The Church,'' they say, " is daily 
languishing for want of bishops." " Some that were 
born of the English have never heard the name of 
Christ, and many others who were baptised into His 
name have fallen away to heathenism, quakerism, 
and atheism, for want of confirmation." 1 " It seems 
the strangest thing in the world, and it is thought 
history cannot parallel it, that any place which has 
received the Word of God so many years, should 
still remain altogether in the wilderness as sheep 
1 S. P. G. mss. 



DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING ORDINATION. 145 

without a shepherd." " There never was so large a 
tract of the earth overspread with Christians without 
so much as one bishop, nor ever a country wherein 
bishops were more wanted." 1 " We have several 
countries, islands, and provinces, which have hardly 
an orthodox minister among them, which might have 
been supplied, had we been so happy as to see a 
bishop apud Americanos." " Above all things, we 
need a bishop for the confirming the baptised, and 
giving orders to such as are willing and well qua- 
lified to receive them ; there being a considerable 
number of actual preachers and others of New- 
England education well disposed to serve in the 
ministry." 2 " We have been deprived of the advan- 
tages that might have been received of some Pres- 
byterian and Independent ministers that formerly 
were, and of others that are still, willing to conform 
and receive the holy character, for want of a bishop 
to give it." " Last year 3 there went out, bachelors 
of arts, near twenty young men from the college, all 
or most of whom would gladly have accepted epis- 
copal ordination, if we had been so happy as to have 
had a bishop of America, from whom they might have 
received it ; but being discouraged at the trouble and 
charge of coming to England, they accepted of au- 
thorities from the dissenting ministers, and are all 
dispersed in that way." 

The pressing sense of these necessities forced 

1 Fulham mss. 2 1705. S. P. G. Mss. 

3 Rev. G. Thorns, 1705 : S. P. G. mss. 
o 



146 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

them often to a passionate earnestness of entreaty. 
" We pray God," they write, 1 " to inspire the go- 
vernment with compassion towards this country, to 
the taking away our reproach amongst the adver- 
saries of our Church." " We speak the wish of 
great multitudes of souls in this land, and the neces- 
sities of a vast many more who perish for lack of 
supervision." In " the miserable case of the country 
from this want," they " would be glad that a true 
episcopate might obtain amongst them in any shape." 
Thus one of them suggests to the Bishop of London, 
6i whether one or other of the youngest and ablest of 
the bishops of the smaller dioceses might not be dis- 
posed to have a commission to visit these parts of 
the world, and spend a year or two among us ; and 
so from time to time, once in about seven years, till 
a settlement could be had, duty being in the mean 
time done for the absent bishop by one of the neigh- 
bouring bishops. This might answer many good 
ends, if nothing else could be done." " The pre- 
sence and assistance of a bishop is most needful ; the 
baptised want to be confirmed; his presence is neces- 
sary in the councils of these provinces, to prevent the 
inconveniences which the Church labours under by 
the influence w T hich seditious men's councils have 
upon the public administration, and the opposition 
which they make to the good inclinations of well- 
aifected persons. He is wanted not only to govern 
and direct us, but to cover us from the malignant 
1 From New Haven, 1724 : Fulhani mss. 



CLERGY OF SPANISH AMERICA. 147 

effects of those misrepresentations that have been 
made by some persons." l " We have great need of 
a bishop here, to visit all the Churches, to ordain 
some, to confirm others, and bless all." 2 

Letters and memorials from the colonies supply, 
for a whole century, a connected chain of such ex- 
postulations ; yet still the mother country was deaf to 
their entreaties. At home they were re-echoed from 
many quarters. Succeeding archbishops pressed 
them on successive administrations ; and the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, during almost 
every year, made some effort in the same cause. 
The records of these memorials shew how earnestly 
and with what strength of argument it pressed this 
great cause upon the notice of the government. 

It may well seem strange that these prayers were 
never granted. England stood alone in not esta- 
blishing her Church in all its perfectness amongst 
her colonies. In Spanish America, whilst the crown 
had carefully excluded the power of the pope, secur- 
ing to itself the appointment to all benefices, and not 
allowing any papal bull to be published w T hich had 
not first been sanctioned by the royal council of the 
Indies, the greatest care was taken to set up amongst 
the colonists that form of faith and worship which, 
debased as it was, the mother country believed to be 
alone consistent with the truth. Thus a monastery 
had been established in New Spain within five years 
from its first settlement. And in 1649, about 120 
1 Nov. 1705 : S. P. G. mss. 2 From New York, 1702. 



148 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

years later, Davila estimates the staff of the Spanish 
Church in America to have been — " 1 patriarch, 
6 archbishops, 32 bishops, 346 prebends, 2 abbots, 
5 royal chaplains, 840 convents." Besides these, 
there were a vast number of inferior clergy, secular 
as well as regulars, who were arranged in a threefold 
division ; " curas," or parish priests, amongst the 
emigrants from Spain, and their descendants ; " doc- 
trineros," to whom were entrusted the Indians who 
had submitted to the rule of Spain ; whilst for the 
fiercer tribes, to whom the civil arm had not yet 
reached, there were bands of " missioneros," who 
laboured to reduce their untamed spirits to the 
faith. 

In these institutions, as Bishop Berkeley endea- 
voured to enforce upon the nation, was a strong 
condemnation of the supineness of a people who 
held a purer faith, and did not in like manner exert 
themselves to spread it. For whatever was deemed 
needful for the Church's strength at home, that, as a 
Christian people, we were manifestly bound to give 
her in our colonies, where, upon the outskirts and 
borders of Christendom, she needed arms for every 
service, and defence from every enemy. Yet, even 
from their earliest establishment, circumstances had 
led to this neglect. The first episcopal colonies were 
settled by private adventurers ; their beginnings were 
feeble and uncertain ; they proceeded on no general 
and matured plan, and their continued existence was 
long doubtful. They had no sooner gained some 



CHARLES THE SECOND. 149 

strength than the king resumed the charter he had 
given, by which they were removed from the control 
of those who valued their religious interests, and fell 
into the hands of the courtiers of James I., who were 
then under Spanish influence, and therefore hostile 
to the extension of the English Church, Then fol- 
lowed the troubles of King Charles's reign, and the 
triumph of dissenters in the great rebellion, ending 
in the overthrow of throne and altar, both at home 
and in our colonies. After the restoration, the sub- 
ject was not wholly overlooked. Lord Clarendon 
perceived its importance, and prevailed on Charles II. 
to appoint a bishop of Virginia, with a general charge 
over the other provinces. 1 Dr. Alexander Murray, 
a sharer in the royal exile, was selected for the office ; 
and a patent was made out for his appointment by 
Sir Orlando Bridgeman, who was lord keeper from 
1667 to 1672. But a change of ministers cut short 
the scheme. 2 The king, a concealed papist, could 
have had no warm affection for it ; and the reins of 
government, which Clarendon relinquished, fell into 
far different hands. 

His successors set themselves against all mea- 
sures planned by him, and to this the Virginian bi- 
shopric was not likely to form an exception ; since 

1 M'Vicar's Life of Hobart, pp. 177-218. 

8 Archbishop Seeker says, in his letter to Horace Walpole. 
it fell to the ground because the tax to support it was to be 
laid on the customs. Dr. Jonathan Boucher states that it was 
through the king's death. — American Revolution, p. 92. 
o 2 



150 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the five men who now absolutely ruled the state, 
two were infidels, two papists, and the fifth a pres- 
byterian. 1 

Daring the life of Charles, therefore, the scheme 
was dropped ; and James II. certainly would not re- 
sume it. Then came the troubles of the revolution, 
and the reign of William III., when the divisions of 
the Church at home, as well as the temper of those to 
whom the conduct of affairs was entrusted, prevented 
further steps being taken in the matter. Other diffi- 
culties also had now arisen. Though petitions were 
repeatedly sent, both from the clergy and laity of 
the American episcopal community, entreating this 
Church and nation to grant them the episcopate, yet 
amongst their fellow-countrymen were found some 
objecting to their reasonable prayer, Many of the 
colonies had, as we have seen, been founded by dis- 
senters ; and now they were multiplied in numbers, 
and grown into new sects of every name and form. 
The sending out of bishops would have been dis- 
tasteful to them, and kindled the wrath of the up- 
holders of dissent at home, whom William III. most 
sedulously courted. Our early neglect had made the 
line of present duty more difficult than ever ; so that 
the scheme was for the time wholly laid aside. 

1 The first letters of whose names formed the word Cabal. 
Lords Clifford and Arlington were papists, the Duke of Buck- 
ingham avowedly an atheist, Sir W. Ashley (two years after- 
wards Lord Shaftesbury) a deist, and Lord Lauderdale a pres- 
byterian. 



QUEEN ANNE. 151 

Queen Anne's accession promised better things ; 
and in her reign the project of an American episco- 
pate was heartily resumed. 

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
still led the way in the efforts which were made. As 
early as the year 1712, a committee was appointed 
" to consider of proper places for the residence, of 
the revenues, and methods of procuring bishops and 
bishoprics in America." This committee sat from 
time to time ; and agreeing that it was " a matter upon 
which the interests of religion, and the success of 
the designs of the society, do greatly depend," 1 they 
moved both the body at large, and the archbishops 
and bishops especially, to proceed in it with vigour. 
Several times they laid before the crown their earn- 
est representations of the great importance of the 
subject. 

Nor were they without the promise of immediate 
fruit. Queen Anne was truly minded to be a nursing 
mother to the Church. Preparations were made for 
founding at once four bishoprics — two for the islands, 
and two for the continent of America. The society 2 
prepared special subscription-rolls, towards raising a 
sum for the endowment of the sees ; and from many 
quarters they received munificent bequests for this 
especial purpose. They applied to the queen for the 
confiscated lands which had belonged to the popish 

1 Manuscript papers of the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel. 

2 February 21, 1718. Ms. proceedings. 



152 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

clergy within the island of St. Kitt's, and received 
a most gracious answer in reply; and in 1712 they 
purchased Burlington House, within New Jersey, 
as the palace of one of the future bishops. 

But just when all seemed most certainly to pro- 
mise the success for which they had so long been 
waiting, the death of the queen again frustrated their 
hopes. With the accession of King George the 
First, and the change of the government, a blight 
fell upon the hopes of the friends of the colonial 
Church. Still the venerable society made its voice 
of remonstrance heard. They represented to the 
new monarch that, " since the time of their incorpo- 
ration, in the late reign, they had used their best 
endeavours to answer the end of their institution, 
by sending over, at their very great expense, minis- 
ters for the more regular administration of God's 
holy word and sacraments, together with schoolmas- 
ters, pious and useful books, to the plantations and 
colonies in America." They recited their former ar- 
guments as to the great need of establishing colonial 
bishoprics, and with them the favourable answer 
they had met with from the Queen. They entreated 
the King to carry out her unfulfilled intentions, and 
found four bishoprics, " that is to say, two for the 
care and superintendency of the islands, and as many 
for the continent." 

These entreaties and remonstrances were not 
confined to this society. Some were always found 
who were ready to urge this duty on the nation. 



DR. BERKELEY. 153 

Foremost amongst these stands Bishop Berkeley, 
whose noble devotion to this great cause deserves 
more than a mere passing notice. Possessed of a 
most subtle understanding, he had already acquired 
fame and eminence, when the spiritual destitution of 
America attracted his attention. A finished and tra- 
velled scholar ; the friend of Steele, and Swift, and 
Pope ; and in possession of the deanery of Derry, — 
he was willing to renounce all, in order to redress 
this pressing evil. " There is a gentleman of this 
kingdom," writes Dr. Swift to the Lord-Lieutenant 
in 1724, " who is just gone to England; it is Dr. 
George Berkeley, dean of Derry, the best preferment 

amongst us He is an absolute philosopher 

w r ith regard to money, titles, and power ; and for 
three years past hath been struck with a notion of 
founding an university at Bermuda by a charter from 
the crown. He hath seduced several of the hope- 
fullest young clergymen and others here, many of 
them well provided for, and all of them in the fairest 
way of preferment ; but in England his conquests 
are greater, and I doubt will spread very far this 
winter. He shewed me a little tract which he de- 
signs to publish ; and there your excellency will see 
his whole scheme of a life academico-philosophical, 
of a college founded for Indian scholars and mission- 
aries, where he most exorbitantly proposeth a whole 
hundred a year for himself, forty pounds for a fellow, 
and ten for a student. His heart will break if his 
deanery be not taken from him, and left to your 



154 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

excellency's disposal. I discourage him by the cold- 
ness of courts and ministers, who will interpret all 
this as impossible and a vision ; but nothing will do. 
And therefore I humbly entreat your excellency either 
to use such persuasions as will keep one of the first 
men in this kingdom for learning and virtue quiet 
at home, or assist him by your credit to compass his 
romantic design, which, however, is very noble and 
generous, and directly proper for a great person of 
your excellent education to encourage." 1 

On this errand Berkeley went to London, and 
having found access by a private channel to George I., 
he so far interested him in the project, that the king 
granted a charter for the new foundation, and com- 
manded Sir Robert Walpole to introduce and conduct 
through the House of Commons an address for the 
endowment of the college with 20,000^. After six 
weeks' struggle against "an earnest opposition from 
different interests and motives," 2 the address was 
" carried by an extraordinary majority, none having 
the confidence to speak against it, and but two giving 
their negatives in a low voice, as if ashamed of it." 
But now, when it might have seemed that " all diffi- 
culties were over," they were little more than begin- 
ning, " much opposition being raised, and that by 
very great men, to the design." Sir Robert Walpole 
was averse to the whole measure ; and a year and a 
half after the grant of the charter, it was " with much 

1 Life of Bishop Berkeley, pp. 17 ; IS. 

2 Letters of Bishop Berkeley. 



BERKELEY IN RHODE ISLAND. 155 

difficulty, and the peculiar blessing of God, that it 
was resolved to go on with the grant, in spite of 
the strong opposition in the cabinet council." But 
Berkeley's resolution was equal to every obstacle : 
though he complains of having " to do with very busy 
people at a very busy time," he was, by May 1727, 
" very near concluding the crown-grant to the col- 
lege, having got over all difficulties and obstruc- 
tions, which were not a few." At this moment, and 
before the broad seal was attached to the grant, the 
king died i 1 and he had all to begin again. 

With untired energy he resumed his labours, and, 
" contrary to the expectations of his friends," so well 
succeeded, that by September 1728 he was able to 
set sail with a new-married wife for the land of his 
choice. He went first to Rhode Island, where he in- 
tended to lay in some necessary stock for the improve- 
ment of his proposed college-farms in the Bermudas. 
Here he awaited the payment of the 20,000/. endow- 
ment of his college. But a secret influence at home 
was thwarting his efforts. His friends in vain im- 
portuned the minister on his behalf, and equally 
fruitless were his own earnest representations. The 
promised grant was diverted to other objects. With 
the vigour of a healthy mind, he was labouring in 
his sacred calling amongst the inhabitants of Rhode 
Island, making provision for his future college, and 
serving God with thankfulness for the blessings he 
possessed. " I live here," he says, " upon land that 
1 June 1727. 



156 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

I have purchased, and in a farm-house that I have 
built in this island : it is fit for cows and sheep, and 
may be of good use in supplying our college at Ber- 
muda. Amongst my delays and disappointments, I 
thank God I have two domestic comforts, my wife 
and my little son ; he is a great joy to us : we are 
such fools as to think him the most perfect thing 
in its kind that we ever saw." For three years he 
patiently awaited the means of accomplishing his 
purpose : until Bishop Gibson extracted from Sir 
Robert Walpole a reply, which brought him home. 
" If," said he, " you put this question to me as a 
minister, I must assure you that the money shall 
most undoubtedly be paid as soon as suits with public 
convenience ; but if you ask me as a friend, whether 
Dr. Berkeley should continue in America, expecting 
the payment of 20,000/., I advise him by all means 
to return home to Europe, and to give up his present 
expectations." 1 

Thus was this noble project, and the labour of 
seven years of such a life, absolutely thwarted. One 
consequence alone remained. The library intended 
for his college was left by Berkeley at Rhode Island, 
and sowed in after-vears the seed of truth amongst 
that people. He himself returned to England ; and 
until his death, in 1753, repeatedly endeavoured to 
arouse his country to the due discharge of its duty to 
the western colonies. 

Other great men repeated his warnings. Bishops 

1 Chandler's Life of Johnson, pp. 53, 54. 



SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 157 

Butler, 1 Sherlock, and Gibson, enforced in turn our 
clear obligations in this matter. Thus we find, in 
1738, the Bishop of London " labouring much, but 
in vain, with the court and the ministry, and endea- 
vouring to induce the archbishop, who had credit 
with both, to join him in trying what could be 
done to get a bishop sent into the plantations;" 2 
and in the same year there was some hope that the 
bishop would be " appointed archbishop of the New 
World, the continent of America, and the adjacent 
islands, and invested with authority and a fulness of 
power to send bishops among them." 

But the fears and the subtleties of worldly-wise 
politicians defeated all these promising appearances. 
Sir Robert Walpole's government was dead to all 
appeals founded upon moral and religious principles. 
The minister consented willingly to no proposal 
which could increase the strength of the Church at 
home ; and whilst the sectarian opponents of the 
measure had put forward their objections in terms 
which could not be mistaken, there was no coun- 
ter power to weigh against the irreligious bias of 
the administration. The nation knew too little of 
Church principles to feel much interest in the sub- 
ject ; while the Church herself languished beneath 
the benumbing influence of Hoadley, and others of 
his school. Still, the episcopalians in America con- 
tinued their most reasonable prayer. From all parts 

1 See Apthorpe's Review of Mayhew's Remarks, p. 55, 

2 Fulhani mss. 

P 



158 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the continent memorials were still sent home, 
though the greatest earnestness upon the subject was 
manifested in the northern colonies, where, as we 
have seen, there was, from many causes, most of the 
life and vigour of religion. 

One of these addresses touched on grounds which 
might have moved even Sir Robert Walpole. The 
bishops, who had been deprived of their temporali- 
ties for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to 
William III., did not thereby lose their spiritual 
character. They had still, therefore, as of old, the 
power of conferring holy orders, and of consecrating 
other bishops by the laying on of hands, although 
their doing so was plainly " irregular and schismati- 
cal." 1 This step unhappily they took, at the immi- 
nent risk of entailing a fearful schism on the English 
Church. Having founded a counter episcopate at 
home, they could feel little scruple in granting to 
America that boon which England had so long and 
so unwarrantably withheld from her. It was, there- 
fore, natural that some of the American clergy should 
look to them for succour, and that they should lend 
a favourable ear to their requests. Accordingly, 
Dr. Welton, and Mr. Talbot the oldest missionary of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, soli- 
cited and received consecration from the non-juring 
bishops : Dr. Welton was consecrated by Dr. Ralph 
Taylor in 1722, Mr. Talbot shortly afterwards by 
Drs. Taylor and Welton. 2 Political disqualifications 
1 Perceval's Apology, p. 244. 2 Ibid. p. 246. 



NON-JURING BISHOPS. 159 

made them unable to perform publicly any episcopal 
acts ; but there is reason to believe that they pri- 
vately administered the rite of confirmation, and, 
in some cases at least, ordained clergy. One such 
instance, traditionally recorded, 1 shews in an interest- 
ing manner what might have been done by resident 
bishops towards occupying the land with a native 
clergy, and so healing the divisions of the West. 

A Congregationalist teacher in New England, 
shortly before this time, began to doubt the lawful- 
ness of his appointment to the ministry. His doubts 
and fears were often hinted, and became well known 
amongst his people. About the time of Dr. Wel- 
ton's visit he left home for a few weeks, giving no 
intimation of the object or direction of his journey. 
On his return he resumed his pastoral charge, and 
now declared himself entirely contented with his 
ministerial commission. Whence this contentment 
sprang he never expressly stated ; but there were 
reasons for the universal belief that he had received 
at Dr. Welton's hands the gift of ordination. 

These episcopal acts were performed with the ut- 
most secrecy ; but they were soon whispered abroad, 
and excited observation. Accounts of them were 
transmitted to head- quarters ; and good men, who 
distrusted non-juring loyalty, hoped to extort from 
the fears of the government what they could not 
obtain from higher motives. " We shall be very 
unhappy," they wrote home, 2 " if any measures 

1 Hawks's Maryland, p. 185. 2 Fulham mss. 



160 AMERICAN CnURCH. 

are taken to propagate disaffection among us. Now, 
though none of the clergy here have ever expressed 
the least disaffection to King George's person or go- 
vernment, but always the contrary, yet it is certain 
that the non-jurors have sent over two bishops into 
America, and one of them has travelled through the 
country upon a design to promote that cause. I 
had accidentally a little acquaintance with him ; and 
though I had considered the matter too well to be 
wrought upon by them, yet many will be in great 
danger of being led aside ; for their powers of in- 
sinuation are very considerable. Your lordship sees 
from hence how miserable the case of this country 
is, for want of bishops to preserve the flock of Christ 
from wandering out of one schism into another, and 
withal into disaffection to the king." 

To the same effect speaks an address of the body 
of the clergy maintained by the Gospel-Propagation 
Society, setting forth " the many ill consequences 
that may follow from Dr. Welton's coming over, who 
is reported to have privately received the episcopal 
character in England, by corrupting the affections 
of the people of that country to our most excellent 
constitution and the person of his most sacred ma- 
jesty," and representing also " the great use and 
benefit of an orthodox and legal bishop residing 
among them." 1 

But not even political danger could extort this 
boon. These appeals only led to Dr. Welton's 
1 S. P. G. mss, 



ARCHBISHOP SECKER. 161 

recall on his allegiance, 1 and to the dismissal of the 
venerable Talbot from his former office. 

Still the question was not left to sleep ; and even 
in the highest places of the Church at home a more 
lively zeal for its accomplishment was soon evinced. 
About the year 1764 a pamphlet was published on 
the subject in New England, by the Rev. E. Ap- 
thorpe, a missionary at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
which called forth an acrimonious rejoinder from a 
Congregational minister at Boston, of the name of 
Mayhew. In this, amongst other charges against 
the society in whose employment Apthorpe was, he 
specially attacked its aim and object in desiring 
American bishops. 

This pamphlet was answered by no less a man 
than Archbishop Seeker. His attention had long 
since been drawn to the question ; 2 and, in a let- 
ter to Horace Walpole, written in January 1750, 
and published, by his order, after his decease, he 
had entered fully into the whole case. This letter 
was an answer to objections against the institution 
of an American episcopate, urged, in a letter to 
Dr. Sherlock, bishop of London, by Robert Lord 
Walpole, brother of the late prime minister. Lord 

1 He returned to Europe, and died in 1726. 

2 In 1745 he writes from London to Dr. Johnson : " Every- 
thing looks very discouraging here ; ecclesiastical, civil, domes- 
tic, and foreign. God avert from us the judgments we have 

deserved We have been greatly blamable, amongst 

many other things, towards you, particularly in giving you no 
bishops." — Life of Dr. Johnson, p. 75. 

P 2 



162 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Walpole shared his brother's apprehension of in- 
creasing the power of the Church, and into this 
fear all his objections resolve themselves. These 
the archbishop fully met, and shewed, as he does 
again in his reply to Dr. Mayhew's angry charges, 
how clearly due was such an institution to our epis- 
copalian brethren. " The Church of England,'' he 
maintained, " is in its constitution episcopal. It is 
in some of the plantations confessedly the established 
Church ; in the rest are many congregations adher- 
ing to it All members of every Church are, 

according to the principles of liberty, entitled to 
every part of what they conceive to be the benefits 
of it entire and complete, so far as consists with the 
welfare of civil government. Yet the members of 
our Church in America do not thus enjoy its bene- 
fits, having no Protestant bishop within three thou- 
sand miles of them — a case which never had its 
parallel before in the Christian world. Therefore it 
is desired that two or more bishops may be appointed 
for them .... to have no concern in the least with 
any persons who do not profess themselves to be of 
the Church of England ; but to ordain ministers for 
such as do, to confirm their children, when brought 
to them at a fit age for that purpose, and take over- 
sight of the episcopal clergy. . . . Neither is it, nor 
ever was, intended to fix one in New England ; but 
episcopal colonies have always been proposed." 1 

1 Answer to Dr. Mayhew's Observations, &c, — Archbishop 
Seeker's Works, vol. ix. p. 324. 



VOLUNTARY CONVENTION. 163 

Such a plea seemed scarcely to admit of answer 
from the zealous advocates of religious toleration ; 
but Dr. Mayhew still found grounds for opposition, 
and for the part he had taken in this matter the 
archbishop was maligned for years, as an over- 
bearing violater of the rights of conscience. 

Though no immediate steps were taken in the 
matter, the archbishop did not despair of its accom- 
plishment. " Lord Halifax," he says (in 1761), " is 
very earnest for bishops in America. I hope we may 
have a chance to succeed in that great point, when it 
shall please God to bless us with a peace." 1 Nor 
was the cause let to drop amongst the northern colo- 
nists. Dr. Chandler, of New Jersey, soon came for- 
ward as its advocate, and he expressed the views of 
all the northern clergy. Those of New York, New 
Jersey, and Connecticut, formed themselves into a 
union, under the title of " The Voluntary Conven- 
tion," with a view to obtaining their desire. In 
May, 1771, the Connecticut clergy addressed another 
earnest appeal upon the subject to the Bishop of 
London. " Viewing," they began, " the distressed 
and truly pitiable state of the Church of England in 
America, being destitute of resident bishops, we beg 

leave to renew our addresses in behalf of it We 

apprehend it a matter of great importance, consi- 
dered in every view, that the Church should be sup- 
ported in America. . . . But this Church cannot be 
supported long in such a country as this, where 



" 



1 Letter of Abp. Seeker, — Dr. Johnson's Life, p. 182. 



164 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

it has so many and potent enemies thirsting after 
universal dominion, and so many difficulties to sur- 
mount, without an episcopate, which in any country 
is essential at least to the well-being of the Church. 
Must it not, then, be surprising and really unaccount- 
able that this Church should be denied the episcopate 
she asks, which is so necessary to her well-being, 
and so harmless, that her bitterest enemies acknow- 
ledge it can injure none ? While Roman Catholics 
in one of his majesty's colonies are allowed a bishop, 
and the Moravians are indulged the same favour in 
another ; nay, and every blazing enthusiast through- 
out the British empire is tolerated in the full en- 
joyment of every peculiarity of his sect, what have 
the sons of the Church in America done, that they 
are treated with such neglect, and are overlooked 
by government ? Must not such a disregard of the 
Church here be a great discouragement to her sons ? 
Will it not prevent the growth of the Church, and 
thereby operate to the disadvantage of religion and 
loyalty? . . . We believe episcopacy to be of divine 
origin; and judge an American episcopate to be es- 
sential to the well-being of religion here." 1 

The efforts of the clergy of Connecticut were not 
confined to sending such addresses to the powers at 
home. Their first endeavour was to secure the con- 
current voice of episcopal America ; and for this end 
they sent deputies 2 throughout the other states. Had 

1 Fulham mss. 

3 The Rev. Dr. Cooper, president of King's College, New 



ADDRESS OF NORTHERN CLERGY. 165 

such vigorous steps been taken earlier, there can be 
little doubt what would have been their issue. They 
would have called forth from all parts of that conti- 
nent one general voice, which could not have been 
slighted here. But that season was gone by ; there 
was now in many districts a clear indisposition to join 
in the attempt. Of this the convention of Connec- 
ticut avowed themselves " sadly sensible ; some of 
the principal colonies are not desirous of bishops ; 
and there are some persons of loose principles, — 
nay, some even of the clergy of those colonies where 
the Church is established, — who, insensible of their 
miserable condition, are rather averse to them. But 
this is so far from being a reason against it, that it 
is the strongest reason for sending them bishops ; 
because they never having had any ecclesiastical 
government or order (which ought indeed to have 
obtained above seventy years ago), the cause of 
religion, for want of it, is sunk and sinking to the 
lowest ebb ; while some of the clergy, as we are cre- 
dibly informed (but are grieved to say it), do much 
neglect their duty ; and some of them on the conti- 
nent, and especially in the islands, are some of the 
worst of men : and we fear there are but too many 
that consider their sacred office in no other light 
than as a trade or means of getting a livelihood ; and 
many of the laity, of course, consider it only as 

York, and the Rev. Mr. M v Kean, missionary at Amboy, New 
Jersey, were sent to the southern part of the continent. — Sea- 
bury mss.,— apud Dr. Hawks' Virginia, p. 126. 



166 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

a mere craft; and deplorable ignorance, infidelity, 
and vice greatly obtain ; so that unless ecclesiastical 
government can so far take place as that the clergy 
may be obliged to do their duty, the very appear- 
ance of the Church will in time be lost, and all kinds 
of sectaries will soon prevail, who are indefatigable 
in making their best advantage of such a sad COn- 
dition of things. It is, therefore, we humbly con- 
ceive, not only highly reasonable, but absolutely 
necessary, that bishops be sent, at least to some of 
these colonies (for we do not expect one here in New 
England) ; and we are not willing to despair but that 
earnest and persevering endeavours may yet bring it 
to pass. We humbly beg your lordship's candour 
with regard to the warmth our consciences oblige us 
to express on this melancholy occasion." 1 

But these were not now the only hindrances. 
In many respects the time was wholly unpropitious 
for the effort. Discord had been long at work 
between the mother-country and the colonies, and 
men's minds had become embittered against every 
thing of English aspect. They associated the name of 
bishops with the institutions of the mother- country, 
and were unwilling to receive them from her, even 
whilst they admitted and believed that their office 
was essential to the perfection of the Church. Other 
causes, too, were at work. There were some, no 
doubt, desirous of maintaining the union between 

1 Letter from Convention of Connecticut to the Lord Bishop 
of London, Oct. 1766, — Fulham mss. 



OPPOSITION TO THE EPISCOPATE. 167 

England and America, who feared, at that moment 
of fierce and unnatural suspicion, to introduce any 
new cause of difference, or to alienate still further 
the sectarian population by the name of bishops. 
When, therefore, the Virginian clergy, who might be 
naturally thought most ready to unite in this appeal, 
were called together by their commissary, in April 
1771, for its consideration, so few appeared in coun- 
cil that the question was postponed. A second sum- 
mons brought no more than twelve, a majority of 
whom, after one opposite decision, agreed to an ap- 
peal to the king in favour of an American episcopate. 
But against this vote, two at first, and ultimately 
four, out of the twelve, protested publicly; and such 
was the feeling of the laity, that these four received 
the unanimous thanks of the lower branch of the 
Virginian house of legislature for " their wise and 
well-timed opposition to the pernicious project for 
introducing an American bishop." Yet, of this very 
body the great majority would have termed them- 
selves episcopalians ; and the reasons given for the 
protest refer only to present expediency, whilst it 
professes to revere episcopacy. Three out of the 
four reasons on which it was grounded were, (1) 
the disturbances occasioned by the stamp-act ; (2) a 
recent rebellion in North Carolina ; and (3) the 
general clamour of the moment against introducing 
bishops ; whilst the fourth, in fact, affected only the 
intended form of application, which, it was con- 
tended, should be first addressed to the Bishop of 



168 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

London for advice, before it besought the throne for 
the episcopate. 

Under these reasons the true causes of this op- 
position may be read. There were already signs 
abroad of the approaching hurricane : the whole at- 
mosphere, political and moral, was heated and dis- 
turbed. Old men looked around- them with wonder 
and fear at the great change in opinions as to Church 
and State, which they saw passing upon all. They 
could " remember when, excepting a few inoffensive ' 
Quakers, there was not in the whole colony a single 
congregation of dissenters of any denomination," ] and 
when loyalty and love for their Church was the very 
characteristic of the " Virginian dominion:" but now 
all was changed. A popular candidate applied for 
votes upon the profession of " low churchmanship 
and whiggery." 2 It were as easy " to count the 
gnats that buzz about in a summer's evening, as the 
numbers of sectarian and itinerant priests ; and in 
particular of those swarms of separatists, who had 
sprung up under the name of Anabaptists and New 
Lights within the last seven years." 3 

With this increase of schismatics the Church was 
taunted as a proof of her remissness. It was in 
vain that she replied, that " itinerant preachers, with 
whom the colony was overrun, made their proselytes 
in parishes left vacant through the want of bishops 

1 Boucher's American Revolution : a sermon preached at 
St. Mary's, Caroline county, Virginia, in 1771, p. 97. 

2 Boucher's Sermon, p. 98. 3 Ibid. p. 100. 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 169 

to ordain successors r" 1 the temper of the time was 
against all authority in Church or State. The party 
papers of the day took up the contest. The discus- 
sion on the American Episcopate was conducted by 
the same organs and in the same temper as that on 
the recent stamp-act. Continued misrepresentation 
stirred up the feehngs of the people into angry oppo- 
sition to the plan. " It is our singular fate," boldly 
declared a preacher at the time, in the face of some 
of the warmest opposers of episcopacy, " to have 
lived to see a most extraordinary event in Church- 
history : professed churchmen fighting the battles of 
dissenters, and our worst enemies now literally those 
of our own household." " Till now, the opposition 
to an American episcopate has been confined chiefly 
to the demagogues and Independents of the New 
England provinces ; but it is now espoused with 
warmth by the people of Virginia." 2 

In such a state of things, sober-minded men, who 
loved their country, looked onward with unfeigned 
alarm. " What evils," 3 declared one of them almost 
prophetically, in 1769, " this prevalence of sectarian- 
ism, so sudden, so extraordinary, and so general, 
may portend to the state, I care not to think. En- 
thusiasts conceive it to be the commencement of a 
millennium ; but I recollect with horror that such 
were the ' signs of the times ' previous to the great 
rebellion in the last century." 

1 Boucher's Sermon, p. 100. 2 Ibid. pp. 94, 103. 

3 Ibid. p. 79. 

Q 



170 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

In this unhappy temper of the country, unanimity 
of effort to secure the episcopate was manifestly 
hopeless. Some of the southern clergy boldly re- 
buked their more time-serving brethren ; and an 
" appeal" was published "from the clergy of New 
York and New Jersey to the episcopalians in Vir- 
ginia," full of arguments which, on their common 
principles, admitted of no answer. But events were 
hastening; on to a far different end. The storm of 
revolution was already breaking on the land ; and till 
its fury had swept past, the desire of every pious 
churchman must be unattainable. 



CHAPTER V. 

from 1775 to 1783-4. 

Revolutionary war — Loyalty of the Northern clergy — Persecution — 
Virginian clergy generally loyal — Treated with violence — Thomas 
Jefferson — Zeal of the Anabaptists — Their hatred to the Church — 
Repeal of all former acts in its favour — Incomes of the clergy 
stopped — They are stripped even of the glebes and churches — Con- 
duct of the Methodists — John Wesley persuaded to consecrate 
Dr. Coke — Low state of the Church at the end of the war — Reli- 
gion at a low ebb — The revolutionary war a consequence of the 
Church not having been planted in America. 

The first blood shed in the war of American in- 
dependence was at Lexington, in the year 1775. 
The northern colonies, which had been all along 
the great fomenters of disturbance, now, true to 
the spirit of their ancestors, led the way in revolt. 
Amidst the general defection, one class of men alone 
continued loyal. Whilst hypocrisy found in Puri- 
tanism the forms it needed, 1 no one minister of the 
Episcopalian Church north of Pennsylvania joined 
the side of the insurgents ; and, as if to make the les- 
son plainer to the mother-country, the king's troops 
were fired upon for the first time from a meeting- 
house in Massachusetts Bay. 2 The great mass of 

1 See p. 175. 2 Boucher's American Revolution. 



172 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the clergy here were missionaries of the venerable 
society, and depended for their incomes on the sala- 
ries they drew from it. But deeper motives lay at 
the root of their firm loyalty. They had learned 
to honour their king in the same holy oracles which 
bid them fear their God ; and though there may 
be nothing in the constitution of the Church which 
makes it incompatible with republican institutions, 
yet those who had sworn allegiance to the crown of 
England knew not how to break those oaths without 
the crime of perjury. 

Their constancy was not a little tried ; and it 
endured the trial. Mr. Beach, the venerable pastor 
of Newtown, answered an injunction to cease pray- 
ing for the king, by the declaration, " that he would 
do his duty, preach and pray for the king, till they 
cut out his tongue." 1 One of the insurgent generals 
acquainted the Rev. Mr. Inglis that " General Wash- 
ington would be at church, and would be glad if the 
prayers for the king and royal family were omitted, 
or the word ' king' exchanged for * commonwealth.' " 
Mr. Inglis paid no attention to the message, and 
declared soon after to Washington in person, " that 
it was in his power to close their churches, but by 
no means in his power to make the clergy depart 
from their duty." To try his determination, one 
hundred and fifty armed men marched into the 
church in which he was officiating ; but he fear- 

1 Gadsden's Preliminary to the Life of Dehon, p. 37. 



ILL-TREATMENT OF THE CLERGY. 173 

lessly continued the appointed service. The officers 
sent to him for the keys of the church, that they 
might open them to the sectarian chaplains. He at 
once refused; took all the keys from the inferior 
servants of the church, and stood his ground so 
firmly, that the attempt was shortly after dropped. 

But firmness would not always save the clergy 
from violence and wrong. Many received personal 
ill-treatment; and in 1777, Trinity Church, New 
York, was burned by incendiaries ; and Mr. Avery 
barbarously murdered, because he refused to pray 
for congress. From the first outbreak of the revo- 
lution this spirit had been stirring : the builders of 
St. John's Church, Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, 
had, in 1774, to watch by night with swords in their 
hands over the rising walls of their new temple. 1 
As the war proceeded, outrages became more gene- 
ral, until there was not in many of the northern pro- 
vinces one church remaining open. In Pennsylvania 
one only was left, under the ministry of Mr. White, 
who, with Dr. Provoost, were the first Americans 
afterwards consecrated bishops by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury. 

These passionate outbreaks were not confined 
to the northern provinces, in which the clergy were, 
for the most part, missionaries of the Gospel-propa- 
gation Society, and might for that reason be more 
closely identified with the English people. In Mary- 

1 Historical Notices of St. John's Church, p. 17, by John 
Rudd, D.D. 

Q 2 



174 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

land and Virginia, where the clergy, supported by 
endowments, were entirely identified with colonial 
interests, they were similarly treated. The Church 
was an object of suspicion and dislike to the insur- 
gents. They felt that her temper was against them, 
even when her sons, as in the case of General Wash- 
ington, were found amongst their leaders. In these 
provinces, as well as in the north, the great bulk of 
the clergy remained loyal. Some of them continued 
to officiate and employ the English ritual, praying 
duly for the king, in spite of threats and violence, 
which were carried to the greatest lengths. Thus, 
for instance, one clergyman, who had offended the re- 
volutionary party through his consistent loyalty, was 
enticed from home at night by a feigned message, 
which called for his attendance on a sick parishioner. 
He fell into the snare, was carried to the woods, and 
there tied up, and, after being mercilessly flogged, 
left, till he was found and rescued in the morning. 1 
Yet even here consistent firmness sometimes tri- 
umphed. One Virginian clergyman refused, when 
violence was at its greatest height, to close his 
church or change its service. He went weekly to 
his duty, after taking a last leave of all his family, 
and resolutely ministered as he had done of old. 
Such determination met with its reward : no one 
dared to interrupt him, and his house grew into a 
safe asylum for his persecuted brethren. 

1 Ms. letter quoted by Dr. Hawks, Epis. Ch, of Virg 



CONDUCT OF THE CLERGY. 175 

But, with some such instances of firmness, the 
clergy, on the whole, did not maintain the loyal 
tone which had so strongly marked the northern 
provinces. They were more under the control of 
local influence, and they were beset by many snares. 
No scruples withheld their opponents. If the re- 
bellious spirit of the people flagged, the holiest 
things were craftily profaned in order to excite their 
passions. The deist Jefferson, looking back upon 
his life, records with self-complacent pleasure, that 
thinking " the appointment of a day of general fast- 
ing and prayer would be most likely to call up and 
alarm attention, he rummaged over the revolutionary 
precedents and forms of the Puritans, and cooked up 
a resolution for appointing a day of fasting, humilia- 
tion, and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from 
us the evils of a civil war." 1 Such hypocrisy w T as 
always at command. And in order to entrap the 
clergy, throughout the early stages of the war days 
of special fasting and prayer were publicly enjoined 
in terms of studied ambiguity, which did not ex- 
press direct approbation of the outbreak, but had 
a general reference to the disturbance of the times. 
Such orders could not reach the northern clergy : 
but here the Church was established, and the clergy 
were forced suddenly to choose whether they would 
check such wishes of apparent piety, or indirectly 
approve of the rebellion. As there was no bishop 

1 Jefferson's Memoirs, p. 6. 



176 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

who could act as a common centre for the various 
members of the Church, each one took singly his 
own line ; and the general tone being lower here 
than in the north, one-third of all the clergy joined 
the revolution, and more than one laid down his 
pastor's staff and censer to take up the musket and 
the sword. Two of the Virginian clergy had risen 
to the rank of brigadier- generals at the close of the 
war. 

But compromise never saved the Church, and it 
did not shield it in Virginia. Its fiercest enemies, 
the Anabaptists, saw at once the favourable mo- 
ment, and resolved to seize it. In their secret 
councils they had already doomed the provincial 
establishment, 1 and they set themselves at once to 
work out their design. Their first step was to ad- 
dress the convention with a declaration of their entire 
concurrence in the war, and to offer the assistance 
of their pastors in enlisting the youth of their own 
denomination. This done, they petitioned for free- 
dom of worship, and for exemption from payments 
to any but their own religious teachers. 2 Their 
zeal was met by a permission to officiate in the 
army, in common with the established clergy, and 
by promises of future favour. Encouraged by these 
beginnings, they poured in on the legislature a mul- 
titude of similar petitions. In their prayer, says 

1 Journals of Convention, August 1775, quoted by Dr. 
Hawks. 

2 Semple's History of Virginia Baptists, pp. 25-27. 



ANABAPTISTS. 177 

the Anabaptist historian with wonderful simplicity, 
" the Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Deists, and 
all the covetous," united. A long struggle followed 
in the legislative body, which gave rise to " the 
severest contests," says Mr. Jefferson, the chief 
opponent of the Church, " in which I have ever 
been engaged." 1 It resulted in an act repealing all 
former laws in favour of the Church ; exempting 
dissenters from further contributions to its funds ; 
only securing to the clergy existing arrears of sa- 
laries, with the glebes, churches, plate, and books, 
which they already possessed. In the present strife 
of parties, this act stopped at once the incomes of 
the great body of the clergy, and absolutely drove 
them from the country. Churches were now every 
where abandoned, flocks wholly broken up, and the 
sacraments administered only from time to time by 
a few zealous pastors, who travelled through the 
country for the purpose. 

Yet even this did not satisfy the hatred of the 
Anabaptist faction. The title to the glebes was still 
in the Church ; and till this was wrested from her, 
their spirit could not rest. Accordingly, as soon 
as the revolutionary war was over, they returned to 
the assault. The incorporation of religious bodies 
was rendered legal by the colonial legislature, and 
the Church availed itself of this permission. The 
first act of the dissenters was to repeal this mea- 

1 Jefferson's Memoirs, p. 33. 



178 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

sure, and dissolve the voluntary incorporation. This 
done, they rested not until, in 1803, they procured 
the confiscation and sale of all the glebes and churches. 
Even the communion- plate was sold ; and the offen- 
sive desecration of things long set apart to holy uses, 
which this violence occasioned, gratified their deep 
hatred to the Church. 

Other evils pressed at the conclusion of the re- 
volutionary war on her wounded and dismembered 
body. In Virginia, as at home, the Methodist con- 
nexion had been founded in communion with her. 
Some of the most pious of the clergy had lent their 
aid to nurture its beginnings. Its teachers at this 
time intruded themselves on no strictly ministerial 
office ; they exhorted all their flocks to cleave to 
the Church ; they with them received the holy eu- 
charist from her appointed pastors ; and only aimed 
at quickening and increasing the religious zeal of 
her members. Discipline was first openly neglected 
during the spiritual famine of the revolutionary war. 
Under its pressure some of the Methodist exhorters 

assumed a right to discharge the functions of Or- 
es o 

dained men. This, however, was completely checked 
by the authority of Mr. Asbuiy, a leader of their 
body, who with indefatigable labour succeeded in 
obtaining a public disavowal of the unwarrantable 
practice. 

But after the revolution the blow fell from an- 
other quarter. John Wesley, then, as his brother 
Charles and his biographer suggest, enfeebled by 



THE METHODISTS. 179 

the weight of fourscore years and two, was per- 
suaded, by some of those into whose hands he was 
about to drop the reins which in his vigour none 
had ever shared with him, to attempt to give that 
which he had never received — the power of ordi- 
nation. He found in Dr. Coke one who, with much 
zeal and piety, was predisposed by strong personal 
vanity to receive gladly the pretended consecration, 
and who even pressed strongly on Wesley his " ear- 
nest wish" 1 to obtain it. The unhappy step was 
therefore taken at Bristol in 1784; and " in spite 
of a million of declarations to the contrary, the 
ordination of Methodist parsons on the presbyterian 
plan" 2 commenced by Wesley. To the " uninfected 
itinerants," says Dr. Whitehead, himself one of the 
connexion, it was " amazing and confounding." 
Even Charles Wesley, who was at Bristol with him, 
was not in his brother's secret ; but in an evil hour 
John Wesley was " surprised into this rash action ;" 3 
and with his commission, and the title of superin- 
tendent — soon changed by imperceptible degrees for 
that of bishop — Dr. Coke went out to America, to in- 
volve the Methodist connexion there in open schism. 
Mr. Asbury was joined in this commission with 
the doctor. When it was first opened to him, he 
" expressed strong doubts about it ;" 4 but the au- 

1 Whitehead's Life of Wesley, vol. ii. p. 419. 

2 lb. vol. ii. p. 416. 

3 Charles Wesley's Letter to Dr. Chandler. 

4 Coke's Journal. 



180 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

thority of Mr. Wesley's name subdued him, and 
at length he joined the scheme ; and the American 
Methodists were severed from the Church. 

The reasons given by John Wesley for this step 
bear no marks of his vigorous understanding. At 
home, he still declares, he would not suffer it ; but 
where there were " no bishops with legal jurisdic- 
tion, his scruples were at an end/' He seemed to 
himself to " violate no order, and invade no man's 
right, by appointing and sending labourers into the 
harvest." Every Churchman sees at once the vanity 
of such excuses. In admitting the power of bishops 
he sealed his own condemnation. For if such 
an order did indeed exist in the Church at all, pos- 
sessed of powers and functions specially committed 
to it by the Lord, Wesley could not at his own 
desire arm himself with its peculiar gifts. Yet, 
whilst we see the weakness of his reasoning, it is 
most instructive to mark on what he grounded the 
lawfulness of this usurpation. Here, as elsewhere, 
it is to the want of bishops that the injury may be 
distinctly traced. 

The peace, which was proclaimed in April 1783, 
found the Church wasted and almost destroyed. The 
ministrations of the northern clergy had been sus- 
pended by their conscientious loyalty ; and with the 
recognition of American independence the connexion 
of the missionaries of the venerable society with 
the land in which they had laboured hitherto was 
abruptly ended. In the south, its condition was not 



EFFECTS OF THE WAR. 181 

greatly better. Virginia had entered on the war 
with one hundred and sixty-four churches and cha- 
pels, and ninety-one clergymen spread through her 
sixty-one counties. At the close of the contest, a 
large " number of her churches were destroyed ; 
ninety-five parishes were extinct or forsaken ; of 
the remaining seventy-two, thirty-four were without 
ministerial services ; while of her ninety-one clergy- 
men, only twenty-eight remained." 1 To this day, 
the mournful monuments of that destruction sadden 
the Churchman's heart throughout the " ancient do- 
minion." As he " gazes upon the roofless walls, or 
leans upon the little remnants of railing which once 
surrounded a now deserted chancel ; as he looks 
out, through the openings of a broken wall, upon 
the hillocks under which the dead of former years 
are sleeping, with no sound to disturb his melancholy 
musings save the whispers of the wind through the 
leaves of the forest around him, he may be pardoned 
should he drop a tear over the desolated house of 
God." 2 At the time, the prospect was indeed de- 
pressing. The flocks were scattered and divided ; 
the pastors few, poor, and suspected ; their enemies- 
dominant and fierce. Nothing but that indestruct- 
ible vitality with w T hieh God has endowed His 
Church could have kept it alive in that day of re- 
buke and blasphemy. Nor was it her communion 
only which had suffered ; a blighting influence per- 

1 Dr. Hawks' Virginia, p. 154. 2 Ibid. p. 155. 

R 



182 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

vaded all the moral atmosphere. Religion, in its 
most general form, was every where depressed. If 
the dissenters seemed to triumph, it was mainly 
because Jefferson — the friend of the infamous Tom 
Paine, and himself supposed to be a settled un- 
believer, — used them as his most convenient wea- 
pon of assault upon the Church. He and others 
like himself now held the reins of power, and in a 
great degree directed public opinion. They hated 
the Church alike for her loyalty and for her faith. 
Whilst she had learned to intercede for " kings and 
all that are in authority," they were teaching their 
young republicans to " besiege the throne of heaven 
with eternal prayers to extirpate from creation this 
class of human lions, tigers, and mammoths, called 
kings." 1 And her faith was as hateful to them as 
her loyalty. They esteemed it a " form of tyranny 
over the mind of man, which had its birth and growth 
in the blood of hundreds and thousands of martyrs, 
against which they had sworn eternal hostility.'*' 2 
Her " clergy lived by the schisms they could 
create." 3 Her saints were, like " Calvin or Atha- 
nasius, fanatics and impious dogmatists." 4 The reli- 
gious faith they would themselves inculcate may be 
learned from Jefferson's directions to a youth whose 
mind he wished to form. " Fix reason," are his 

1 Jefferson's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 224. 

2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 449, and vol. iv. p. 368. 

3 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 475. 

4 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 358. 



EFFECTS OF THE WAR. 183 

words, " firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal 
every fact, every opinion. Question even the being 
of a God . . . Do not be frightened from this inquiry 
by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief 
that there is no God, you will find incitements to 
virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you will feel 
in its exercise, and the love of others which it will 
procure you." 1 So large were his views, that he 
threw " the mantle of public protection alike over 
the Jew and Gentile, the Christian and Mahomme- 
dan, Hindoo and infidel of every denomination. 5 ' 2 
As was natural in such a state of things, infidelity 
was spreading all around, girdled every where by a 
fierce and unreasoning fanaticism. " From a pious 
presbyterian," says a writer of the day, 3 " I learn 
that religion is at a low ebb among them. The 
Baptists, I suppose, are equally declining ; I seldom 
hear any thing about them. The Methodists are 
splitting and falling to pieces." " The war," says 
the Anabaptist chronicler of the state of his sect, 
" though very propitious to their liberty, had an 
opposite effect upon the life of religion among them. 

They suffered a very wintry season The 

declension was general Iniquity greatly 

abounded." 4 

1 Jefferson's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 217. 

2 Jefferson's Works, vol. i. p. 39. 

3 Life of Rev. Devereux Jarratt, p. 180. 

4 Semple's History of Virginia Baptists, pp. 35, 36, quoted 
by Dr. Hawks. 



1»4 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Such was the state of things at the end of the 
revolutionary war. 

It is impossible to close the scene without re- 
flecting how different it might have been, if the 
mother-country had long before faithfully esta- 
blished the strong band of a true community of 
faith between herself and her colonies. Those 
whose minds the Church, weak as she was, had 
leavened, were by her healing influence kept loyal 
in the day of trial. What might not have been the 
consequence, if, instead of spreading division freely 
in that land, and keeping her maimed and impotent, 
we had, with a true faith in God, planted her amongst 
our western children in her strength and beauty ! 
The colonies might now, perhaps, have been as 
much an independent nation ; but they might have 
reached that state by a gradual progress to natural 
maturity ; their youthful affections might never have 
been torn from us ; and England, America, and the 
world, might have been spared those bitter suffer- 
ings with which they have been visited in the war 
of independence, and its clear consequence, the 
French Revolution. But this the intrigues of party- 
statesmen had prevented : in vain the Church at 
home protested ; in vain America sent, year by year, 
her supplications for the boon ; at one time their 
mutual suspicions ; at another, fears of strengthen- 
ing the Church at home; the hope, at another, of 
securing the support of schismatics in England or 
the colonies, — led these men to weave otherwise 



COLONIAL EMPIRE. 185 

their fine-spun webs of cunning policy. Thus the 
cause of God was slighted ; all seemed to prosper 
for a while : but the day of retribution came ; and 
surely that hour of mortal struggle, closed by the 
sudden loss of those great settlements, was intended 
to teach England that her vast colonial empire was 
a trust from God ; and that, if she would not use it 
for His glory, it should wither in her grasp. 



r 2 



CHAPTER VI. 

from 1783 to 1787. 

Depression of the Church — Parties— And Opinions — Attempted or- 
ganisation in the south — Mr. White— Conventions in Virginia and 
Philadelphia— Agreement on common principles — First movements 
for general union — General voluntary meeting at New York — Want 
of episcopate— Movement amongst the eastern clergy — They elect 
Dr. Seabury bishop — He sails for England — Disappointed of conse- 
cration there — Dr. Berkeley and the Scotch bishops — Dr. Seabury 
applies to them — Opposition — His consecration — And return — First 
convention at Philadelphia — Difference of opinion — Dr. White — 
Proposed liturgy — Application to the English prelates for the apos- 
tolical succession — Their objections to some changes in the liturgy 
—These reconsidered — Drs. "White and Provoost embark for Eng- 
land — Are consecrated at Lambeth — Return to America, April 
1787. 

It has been often seen, in the dealings of God with 
His people, that mortality becomes the seed of life. 
" Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth 
much fruit." " That w T hich thou sowest is not 
quickened, except it die." And so it was now with 
the Church in America. Crushed it w r as, and almost 
brought to nothing ; made the very prey of its ene- 
mies ; abandoned, of necessity, by the fostering hand 
which from without had so long sheltered it ; weak 



PARTIES IN THE CHURCH. 187 

in the sunken spirits of its own children ; yet, even 
in that hour of darkness and depression, preparing 
to arise in a perfectness of discipline and strength 
which it never had known, and never could know, 
whilst, instead of being planted as a substantive 
communion, it was treated as a distant, incomplete, 
and feeble branch of one settled in another land. 
It had within itself the principle of life ; and now 
that it was cast out into the field of the world, 
although suddenly and rudely, it began to strike its 
roots, and put forth its tender buds. 

Yet dangers of the most various character threat- 
ened its existence. A twofold object was before 
those who watched over it ; to provide, through the 
possession of the Episcopal succession, for the inde- 
pendent existence of the Church, and to gather up 
into a national communion the scattered congrega- 
tions of the old " Church of England in America." 
It was no easy matter to secure either of these ob- 
jects, and peculiar difficulties opposed their combi- 
nation. There always have been, and, from the con- 
stitution of the human mind, there always must be, 
in the Church two extremes of opinion, towards 
which, on the one side or the other, its members 
will incline. On the one side are ranged those 
who are disposed to set a high value on external 
observances and forms ; on the other, those to 
whom the inner spirit seems so exclusively impor- 
tant that they are inclined to undervalue and de- 
spise all outward organs through which only it can 



188 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

act. Between those who belong to these extremes 
mutual suspicions must from time to time spring up, 
which too often harden into obstinate separation. Of 
this there was now the greatest danger in America. 
In the eastern states the distinctive features of Church 
discipline and order were passionately valued ; whilst 
in the south the great majority were not unwilling to 
give them up entirely : separation between the two 
parties seemed inevitable, and the very existence of 
episcopacy was in peril with the last. 

But at this dangerous time God had richly en- 
dued one of His servants with those gifts of judg- 
ment and temper which were needful for the crisis ; 
and hence the name of William White will ever be 
recorded by the grateful remembrance of the West- 
ern Church. The revolutionary war found him as- 
sistant minister of Christ Church and St. Peter's, 
Philadelphia. Mild in manners, meek in spirit, and 
large in toleration of the views of others, he was 
yet firm and decided in his own. Early in the war, 
he joined, from conviction, the side of the colonists, 
and, at its darkest moment, publicly committed him- 
self to it, by undertaking the chaplainship of congress. 
The progress of the war left him the sole minister 
of Christ Church and St. Peter's, and the election 
of the vestry made him their rector. When the 
cause of colonial independence triumphed, his pre- 
sence in a great measure turned aside the angry 
jealousies with which the young republic looked 
on the connexion to which he belonged. His con- 



ATTEMPTED ORGANISATION. 189 

sistent conduct was well known ; and Washington 
was one of those who worshipped at his church. 
Men would hear from him what they would not 
from another ; nor was he slow to employ this 
advantage for the general good. His views were 
early turned to gathering the various flocks which 
w r ere scattered through the States into one visible 
communion. Early in August 1782, despairing of 
the speedy recognition of American independence, 
and " perceiving their ministry gradually approach- 
ing to annihilation," 1 while England was as unwilling 
to give, as America to receive, the episcopate from 
her, he proposed a scheme for uniting their different 
parishes in convention, and on behalf of the whole 
body, committing to its president and others the 
powers of ordination and discipline. This proposal 
sprung from no conscious undervaluing of episcopacy, 
but from a belief " that in an exigency in which a 
duly authorised ministry could not be obtained, the 
paramount duty of preaching the Gospel, and the 
worshipping of God on the terms of the Christian 
covenant, should go on in the best manner which 
circumstances permit." 2 Should more favourable 
prospects dawn upon them, and the succession be 
obtained, he proposed, by a provisional ordination, 
to supply any deficiencies of ministerial character 
in those who had been thus ordained. Happily 

1 Letter to Bp. Hobart, quoted in Life of Bp. White, p. 80. 

2 Note of Bp. White's to his Letter to Bp. Hobart, Dec, 
1830. 



190 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

no such scheme took effect, since it would, in all 
probability, have laid the foundation of wide-spread 
and endless separation. In the very month in which 
Mr. White's pamphlet was published, the hearts of 
all were gladdened by clear symptoms of approach- 
ing peace between the mother-country and her now 
independent colonies. This was no sooner esta- 
blished than Mr. White abandoned his scheme, and, 
daring to look on to greater things, set himself to 
gather into one the various limbs of the episcopal 
communion, that they might apply in concert to the 
mother-country for the consecration of their bishops. 
He began with his own state of Philadelphia, calling 
together first his own vestries, and then (on the 
31st of March, 1784) the other clergy of the state 
who happened to be present in the town, to delibe- 
rate upon the measures rendered necessary by the 
present posture of the episcopal communion. They 
agreed to send a circular to all the episcopalian con- 
gregations in Philadelphia, inviting them to delegate 
one or more of their vestry to meet the clergy of the 
state in a general consultation on the 24th of May. 
On the day appointed they assembled, and agreed 
to certain fundamental principles as a basis for after 
action as a body. These were : — 

1. That the episcopal Church is, and ought to 
be, independent of all foreign authority, ecclesiasti- 
cal or civil. 

2. That it hath, and ought to have, in common 
with all other religious societies, full and exclusive 



MOVEMENTS FOR UNION. 191 

powers to regulate the concerns of its own com- 
munion. 

3. That the doctrines of the Gospel be main- 
tained, as now professed by the Church of England, 
and uniformity of worship continued, as near as may 
be, to the liturgy of the same Church. 

4. That the succession of the ministry be agree- 
able to the usage which requireth the three orders 
of bishops, priests, and deacons ; that the rights and 
powers of the same respectively be ascertained, and 
that they be exercised according to reasonable laws 
to be duly made. 

5. That to make canons or laws, there be no 
other authority than that of a representative body 
of the clergy and laity conjointly. 

6. That no powers be delegated to a general 
ecclesiastical government except such as cannot con- 
veniently be exercised by the clergy and laity in 
their respective congregations. 

Resolutions to a somewhat similar effect were 
passed in Maryland, in June 1784, and at Boston, 
in Massachusetts, in September of the same year. 
By agreement upon these common principles, a basis 
for internal unity of action was formed w r ithin the 
separate provinces ; but there was still wanting some 
common bond which should hold together the epis- 
copal communion in the several independent go- 
vernments which together form the confederation of 
the United States. This was Mr. White's great 
object, and his character and conduct were most 



192 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

effectual in securing it. His early efforts were es- 
pecially addressed to the members of the southern 
states, and amongst them his reputation for moderate 
views gave great weight to his advice. He had at 
first to deal with most discordant materials. One 
state (South Carolina) clogged a tardy consent to 
apply for the episcopate with a condition that no 
bishop should be planted in her borders ; and some- 
thing of this jealousy was widely spread. But 
there was in him nothing to inflame it, and he was 
thus able to win over to better views those who 
were ready to oppose themselves. In the month of 
May 178-1, a few clergymen of New York, New 
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, met at Brunswick in New 
Jersey, to renew a charitable society which had been 
chartered, before the revolution, for the relief of 
the widows and orphans of the clergy. At this 
meeting the present state and prospects of their 
Church, and the best means of uniting its scattered 
parts, came naturally under their discussion. To 
obtain this end, it was determined to procure an- 
other and more numerous gathering at New York, 
by which some common principles might be denned. 
In October 1784, the projected council met, eight 
of the different states furnishing some voluntary 
delegates. These agreed on seven leading princi- 
ples of union, which they recommended to the se- 
veral states, and which, with little alteration, have 
formed ever since the basis of their combination. Of 
these the leading resolutions were the following :— - 



CONDITIONS OF UNION. 193 

1. That there should be a general convention of 
the episcopal Church in the United States of America. 

2. That the episcopal Church in each state should 
send deputies to the convention, consisting of clergy 
and laity. 

3. That the said Church shall maintain the doc- 
trines of the Gospel as now held by the Church of 
England, and adhere to the liturgy of the said Church 
as far as shall be consistent with the American re- 
volution and the constitutions of the several states. 

4. That in every state where there shall be a 
bishop duly consecrated and settled, he shall be 
considered as a member of the convention ex officio. 

5. That the clergy and laity assembled in con- 
vention shall deliberate in one body, but shall vote 
separately, and the concurrence of both shall be 
necessary to give validity to every measure. 

6. That the first meeting of the convention shall 
be at Philadelphia, the Tuesday before the feast of 
St. Michael next. 

Such were the first efforts made within this 
Church for visible and outward unity. That they 
should be made at all bespoke the living energy 
which was dormant even in their most imperfect 
body : that they should have been required is a heavy 
charge against the mother-Church. Never had so 
strange a sight been seen before in Christendom, 
as this necessity of various members knitting them- 
selves together into one, by such a conscious and 
voluntary act. In all other cases the unity of the 



194 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

common episcopate had held such limbs together : 
every member, that is, of the Church, had visibly 
belonged to the community of which the presiding 
bishop was the head. That bishop was himself one 
member of an equal and common brotherhood, all of 
whom, with the same creed and in the same succes- 
sion, were partners in one common power which each 
one separately administered ; and so each member 
of the Church under them belonged already to one 
great corporation, needing to make no voluntary al- 
liance between its several parts, because it was al- 
ready one ; and they that were grafted into it were 
thereby grafted into unity with their fellows. But 
this common bond we had left wanting in our colo- 
nies ; and it was the want of this which had thus dis- 
membered their communion. As soon, therefore, as 
the political connexion of the state with England was 
dissolved, some measures, for which no precedent 
existed, were forced upon them ; nor would it have 
been easy to devise a wiser course than that which 
they adopted, in their present want of bishops, who 
have ever been the organs of communication between 
different portions of the Church. 

A delegate from Connecticut had attended the 
convention which framed these recommendations, 
but he took no part in the deliberations ; for Con- 
necticut had early moved in a somewhat different 
manner. Amongst the eastern clergy, as we have 
seen, was the most earnest piety, wedded to the 
strongest and most clearly ascertained Church-prin- 



DR. SEABURY. 195 

ciples. In their new circumstances, they esteemed 
it their first duty to perfect their system by securing 
the presence and rule of a bishop. In this they were 
confirmed by the avowed temper of the south, from 
which they greatly feared the adoption of a spuri- 
ous and nominal episcopacy. They began, therefore, 
at once to act for themselves, and refused to take 
any share in organising their scattered communion 
until they had a bishop at their head. As soon as 
the peace made it possible, 1 the clergy met in vo- 
luntary convention ; and before the British troops had 
evacuated New York, Dr. Samuel Seabury, formerly 
a missionary of the Gospel-propagation Society in 
Staten Island, and now elected bishop by the clergy 
of Connecticut, had sailed for England to obtain con- 
secration there. Besides the certificate of his elec- 
tion, Dr. Seabury bore with him testimonials from 
the leading clergy of New York, 2 and letters earnestly 
requesting of the English bishops the boon which 
America had so long sought in vain. 

Dr. Seabury reached England at a time when 
the mutual relations between this country and her 
late colonies were new and uncertain, and when the 
government at home were full of care lest any ap- 
parent interference on their part should stir up the 

' March 1783. 

2 He had been treated with great severity by the insurgents 
during the revolutionary war ; and though hunted from place 
to place, and more than once imprisoned, had maintained his 
ministry till the last moment. 



196 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

jealous} 7 of new-born independence. Hence, when 
Dr. Seabury made his application to the Archbishop 
of York (the see of Canterbury being vacant), he 
found at once great difficulties in his way. Without 
a special act of parliament, the archbishop could not 
consecrate a subject of America ; for no subject of 
a foreign state could take the oath of allegiance, to 
dispense with which the archbishop had no power ; 
and for such an act ministers would not apply, until 
they were assured that the step would not offend 
America. Delay and uncertainty became thus un- 
avoidable ; whilst the motives which had led to the 
attempt pressed strongly on Dr. Seabury. Under 
these circumstances, he looked anxiously around, to 
see if he could properly obtain from any other quar- 
ter the episcopal succession. The Church in Scot- 
land at once attracted his attention. There the true 
succession, derived of old time from ours, was care- 
fully preserved ; whilst the bishops, unlike those in 
England, were fettered by no connexion with the 
state. The Presbyterian kirk had been long esta- 
blished in Scotland, and the Episcopalians were barely 
tolerated there. They consequently would be able, 
without any application to the state, so to vary, if 
need were, the form of consecration, as to make it suit 
a citizen of the American republic. 

Other circumstances had been preparing the way 
for this application. In the autumn of 1782, before 
the recognition of the independence of the North 
American colonies, the attention of the Scottish 



SCOTCH BISHOPS. 197 

bishops had been specially called to the state of the 
Church there. In October of that year, Dr. George 
Berkeley, eldest son of the great Bishop Berkeley, 
the heir of his father's virtues, and of his interest 
in the welfare of America, writing to the Rev. Mr. 
(afterwards Bishop) Skinner, expressed his hope, 
" that a most important good might ere long be 
derived to the suffering and nearly neglected sons 
of Protestant episcopacy on the other side of the 
Atlantic, from the suffering Church of Scotland." 
" American rebellion," he continues, " has widened 
her religious, or rather irreligious, bottom so exten- 
sively, as to require, from those who bear office 
under her baleful shade, a simple declaration * that 
they believe in the existence of the Supreme Being.' 
I would humbly submit it to the bishops of the 
Church in Scotland (as we style her in Oxford), 
whether this be not a time peculiarly favourable to 
the introduction of the Protestant episcopate on the 
footing of universal toleration, and before any anti- 
episcopal establishment shall have taken place. God 
direct the hearts of your prelates in this matter." 1 

Such a suggestion as this, from such a quarter, 
attracted immediate attention. Dr. George Berke- 
ley was a man of the highest station in the English 
Church. He had been the intimate friend of the 
late Archbishop Seeker, was himself a prebendary 
of Canterbury, and had two years before refused the 

1 Ms. Seabury papers. The italics are those of the ori- 
ginal letter. 

s 2 



198 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

bishopric of Killala. The episcopalians of Scotland 
had been little accustomed to any great respect in 
England, and were therefore the more attracted by 
such an overture. Many difficulties, however, met 
them on the threshold, but none to which Dr. Berke- 
ley would yield. " As to American Protestant epis- 
copacy (for popish prelacy hath found its way into 
the transatlantic world), one sees not any thing com- 
plicated or difficult in the mere planting it. A bishop 
consecrated by the English or Irish Church would 
find considerably stronger prejudices against him in 
the revolted colonies, than would one who had been 
called to the highest order by a bishop or bishops 
of the Scotch Church ; our bishops, and those of 
Ireland, having been nominated by a sovereign 
against whom the colonists have rebelled, and whom 
you have never recognised. The Americans would, 
even many of the episcopalians among them, enter- 
tain political jealousies concerning a bishop by any 
means connected with us ; they would be apt to 
think of him as of a foe to their wild projects of in- 
dependency, See. 

" I am as far removed from Erastianism and 
from democracy as any man ever was ; I do heartily 
abominate both of those anti - scriptural systems. 
Had my honoured father's scheme for planting an 
episcopal college, whereof he was to have been pre- 
sident, in the Summer Islands, not been sacrificed 
by the worst minister that Britain ever saw, pro- 
bably under a mild monarch (who loves the Church 



SCOTCH BISHOPS. 199 

of England as much as I believe his grandfather 
hated it), episcopacy would have been established 
in America by succession from the English Church, 
unattended by any invidious temporal rank or power. 
But the dissenting miscellaneous interest in England 
has watched, with too successful a jealousy, over the 
honest intentions of our best bishops. . . . 

" From the Churches of England and Ireland 
America will not now receive the episcopate ; if 
she might, I am persuaded that many of her sons 
would joyfully receive bishops from Scotland. The 
question, then, shortly is, Can any proper persons 
be found who, with the spirit of confessors, would 
convey the great blessing of the Protestant episco- 
pate from the persecuted Church of Scotland to the 
struggling persecuted Protestant episcopalian wor- 
shippers in America ? If so, is it not the duty of 
all and every bishop of the Church in Scotland to 
contribute towards the sending into the new world 
Protestant bishops, before general assemblies can be 
held, and covenants taken, for their perpetual exclu- 
sion ? Liber avi animam meam. 

" Deeply convinced as I am of the necessity of 
episcopacy towards the constitution of a Christian 
Church, I hope that no consideration would (I know 
that no consideration ought to) restrain me in this 
matter, if I was a bishop. A Scotch bishop conse- 
crating one or more good men, of sound ecclesias- 
tical principles, might now sow a seed which, in 
smallness resembling that of mustard, might also 



200 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

resemble it in subsequent magnificence and ampli- 
tude of production. I humbly conceive that a bi- 
shop at Philadelphia, who had never sworn to King 
George, would be very well placed. The Quakers 
are a tolerating people. I have written to you cur- 
rente calamo. 

" If, as I suspect, persecution shall have tended 
to damp the spirits of our right reverend fathers in 
Scotland, /(who never knew experimentally what per- 
secution meant) must not presume to censure. Zeal 
without knowledge — (without knowledge of one's 
own heart) — is a dreadful enemy of true religion." 1 

In answer to these earnest representations, Bi- 
shop Skinner (for he had just been raised to the 
episcopate) laid before his friend the great difficul- 
ties which opposed themselves to such a course. 

" Nothing," he suggests, " can be done in the 
affair with safety on our side, till the independence 
of America be fully and irrevocably recognised by 
the government of Britain ; and even then the ene- 
mies of our Church might make a handle of our cor- 
respondence with the colonies, as a proof that we 
always wished to fish in troubled waters — and we 
have little need to give any ground for an imputa- 
tion of that kind." He urges, further, the difficulty 
of finding a proper person, and the uncertainty of 
his reception in America. To all this Dr. Berkeley 
answers, on the 24th of March : — 

1 Ms. Seabury papers. 



BP. SKINNER AND DR. BERKELEY. 201 

" I beg leave to observe, with all becoming de- 
ference, that I cannot consider the immediate and 
unsolicited introduction of episcopacy into America 
in the same light wherein it is viewed by yourself 
and your venerable brethren, the bishops of the 
Scotch Church. 

" From the papists one learns that no time is to 
be lost, and that substances are to be preferred to 
shadows — things 1 essential, to the paraphernalia of 
a Church. If I ever wrote a sentence under the 
influence of an humble spirit, I write so at this 
moment, when I do yet adventure to differ from my 
fathers in Christ, A consecration in Scotland might 
be very secret ; it could not be so elsewhere. A 
consecration from a persecuted, depressed Church, 
which is barely tolerated, would not alarm the pre- 
judices of opponents. I need not say to Bishop 
Skinner or his brethren, that an episcopal Church 
may exist without any legal encouragement or esta- 
blishment, and without the definition of country into 
regular and bounded dioceses. Provincial assemblies 
will never invite a prelate ; provincial assemblies, if 
they establish any thing, will establish some human 
device; but provincial assemblies will not, now or 
soon, think of excluding a Protestant bishop, who 
sues only for toleration. Popish prelates are now 
in North America exercising their functions over a 
willing people, without any aid or encouragement 

1 The italics throughout are preserved from the original letter. 



202 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

from provincial assemblies. In a short time, we 
must expect all Protestant episcopalian principles 
to be totally lost in America. They are not so 
now ; and yet episcopacy must be sent before it 
be asked : these are lukewarm days. Christianity 
waited not at the first, the Church of Rome waits 
not now, for any invitation or encouragement. Bi- 
shop Geddes told me that the pope allows him 251. 
per annum, and that he has no other settled support : 
the other popish bishops in Scotland have 51. each 
per annum from the Bishop of Rome. Out of Scot- 
land there is but little known concerning the episco- 
pal Church here ; and, generally, it is conceived to 
be a society purely political. I believe a secret sub- 
scription could be raised, adequate to the purposes 
of supporting one pious, sensible, discreet bishop, at 
least for a season after his arrival in Virginia ; and 
I think I know one person competent and willing for 
the great work. 5 ' 1 

Thus matters stood when Dr. Seabury reached 
England ; and finding the difficulties which beset his 
application to the English bishops for the present 
insurmountable, began to turn his eyes to Scotland. 
In Nov. 1783, a letter was despatched by Mr. El- 
phinston, a man of literary reputation, the son of a 
Scotch clergyman, in which the following question 
was put to the primus or presiding bishop of the 
Church in Scotland : " Can consecration be obtained 

1 Ms. Seabury papers. 



APPLICATION TO SCOTCH BISHOPS. 203 

in Scotland for an already dignified and well-vouched 
American clergyman, now at London, for the purpose 
of perpetuating the episcopal reformed Church in 
America, particularly in Connecticut V il 

At the same time, Dr. Berkeley thus re-opened 
his correspondence with Bishop Skinner : — " I have 
this day heard, I need not add with the sincerest 
pleasure, that a respectable presbyter, well recom- 
mended from America, has arrived in London, seek- 
ing what, it seems, in the present state of affairs, 
he cannot expect to receive in our Church. 

" Surely, dear sir, the Scotch prelates, who are 
not shackled by any Erastian connexion, will not 
send this suppliant empty away. 

" I scruple not to give it as my decided opinion, 
that the king, some of his cabinet counsellors, all 
our bishops (except, peradventure, the Bishop of 
St. Asaph), and all the learned and respectable 
clergy in our Church, will at least secretly rejoice, 
if a Protestant bishop be sent from Scotland to 
America ; but more especially if Connecticut be 
the scene of his ministry. It would be waste of 
words to say any thing by way of stirring up Bishop 
Skinner's zeal." 2 

The Scotch bishops, in reply, required informa- 
tion as to the personal merits of the candidate for 
the episcopate, as well as on the hindrances with 
which he had met in England. On both points 

1 Ms. Seabury papers. 2 Ibid. 



204 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Dr. Berkeley answered them, urging strongly that 
they need anticipate no opposition from the English 
government to their granting " a consecration, which 
can contradict no law, for a foreign and an inde- 
pendent state. My reading," he continues, M does 
not enable me to comprehend how, without an epis- 
copacy, the gospel, together with all its divine insti- 
tutions, can possibly be propagated. In the present 
state of matters, I do not see how the English pri- 
mate can, without royal license at least, if not par- 
liamentary likewise, proceed to consecrate any bishop, 
except for those districts which erst were allowed 
to give titles to assistant bishons. In this state of 
things, I think the glory of communicating a Pro- 
testant episcopacy to the united independent states 
of America seems reserved for the Scotch bishops. 
Whatever is done herein ought assuredly to be done 
very quickly, else the never-ceasing endeavours of 
the English dissenters, whose intolerance has kent 
back the blessing of prelacy from the Protestant 
prelatists of America, will stir up too probably a 
violent spirit in Connecticut against the bishop in 
fieri. If the Church of England was to send a bi- 
shop into any one of the United States of America, 
the congress might, and probably would, exclaim, that 
England had violated the peace, and still claimed a 
degree of supremacy over the subjects of that inde- 
pendent state. The episcopal Church of Scotland 
cannot be suspected of aiming at supremacy of any 
kind, or over any people. I do therefore earnestly 



APPLICATION TO SCOTCH BISHOPS. 205 

hope, that, very shortly, she may send a prelate to 
the aid of transatlantic aspirants for the primitive 
ordinance of confirmation." 1 

The Scotch bishops now expressed, in answer, 
" their warmest approbation of the new proposal." 
Their primus (Bishop Kilgour) expressed his " hearty 
concurrence in the proposal for introducing Protes- 
tant episcopacy into America. All things," he con- 
tinues, " bid fair for the candidate. I hope, indeed, 
that the motion is from, and the plan laid under, the 
direction of the Holy Spirit. But as it is a matter 
of the greatest importance, it is necessary we go 
about our part in it with the utmost circumspec- 
tion." " The very prospect," writes another bishop, 
" rejoices me greatly ; and considering the great de- 
positum committed to us, I do not see how we can 
account to our great Lord and Master, if we neglect 
such an opportunity of promoting His truth, and en- 
larging the borders of His Church." 2 

At length, upon the 31st of August, 1784, Dr. 
Seabury made a distinct application to the Scottish 
bishops. " I thought it my duty," he says, referring 
to his application for English consecration, " to pur- 
sue the plan marked out for me by the clergy of 
Connecticut, as long as there was a probable chance 
of succeeding. That probability is now at an end, 
and I think myself at liberty to pursue such other 
schemes as shall ensure to them a valid episcopacy. 

1 Ms. Seabury papers. 2 Ibid. 

T 



206 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Such I take the Scotch episcopacy to be, in every 
sense of the word ; and such, I know, the clergy of 
Connecticut consider it, and always have done so. 
But the connexion that has always subsisted between 
them and the Church of England, and the gener- 
ous support they have hitherto received from that 
Church, naturally led them, though now no longer 
a part of the British dominions, to apply to that 
Church in the first instance for relief in their spi- 
ritual necessity. Unhappily the ministry have re- 
fused to permit a bishop to be consecrated without 
the formal request, or at least consent, of congress, 
which there is no chance of obtaining, and which the 
clergy of Connecticut would not apply for, were the 
chance ever so good. They are content with having 
the episcopal Church in Connecticut put upon the 
same footing with every other religious denomination. 
A copy of a law of the state of Connecticut, which 
enables the episcopal congregations to transact their 
ecclesiastical affairs upon their own principles, to tax 
their members for the maintenance of their clergy, 
for the support of their worship, for the building 
and repairing of churches, and which exempts them 
from all penalties and from all other taxes on a re- 
ligious account, I have in my possession. The legis- 
lature of Connecticut know that a bishop is applied 
for ; they know the person in whose favour the ap- 
plication is made ; and they give no opposition to 
either. Indeed, were they disposed to object, they 
have more prudence than to attempt to obstruct it. 



dr. seabury's application. 207 

They know that there are in that state more than se- 
venty episcopal congregations ; many of them large ; 
some of them making a majority of the inhabitants 
of large towns, and with those that are scattered 
through the state, composing a body of near or quite 
40,000 — a body too large to be needlessly affronted 
in an elective government. 

" On this ground it is that I apply to the good 
bishops in Scotland ; and I hope I shall not app]y 
in vain. If they consent to impart the episcopal 
succession to the Church of Connecticut, they will, 
I think, do a good work, and the blessing of thou- 
sands will attend them. And perhaps for this cause, 
among others, God's providence has supported them, 
and continued their succession, under various and 
great difficulties, that a free, valid, and purely eccle- 
siastical episcopacy may, from them, pass into the 
western world. As to any thing which I receive 
here, it has no influence on me, and never has had 
any. I indeed think it my duty to conduct the 
matter in such a manner as shall risk the salaries 
which the missionaries in Connecticut receive from 
the society here as little as possible ; and I persuade 
myself it may be done, so as to make that risk next 
to nothing. With respect to my own salary, if the 
society choose to withdraw it, I am ready to part 
with it. 

" It is a matter of some consequence to me that 
this affair be determined as soon as possible. I am 
anxious to return to America this autumn ; and the 



208 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

winter is fast approaching, when the voyage will be 
attended with double inconvenience and danger, and 
the expense of continuing here another winter is 
greater than will suit my purse. I know you will 
give me the earliest intelligence in your power ; and 
I shall patiently wait till I hear from you. My most 
respectful regards attend the right reverend gentle- 
men under whose consideration this business will 
come ; and as there are none but the most open 
and candid intentions on my part, so I doubt not 
of the most candid and fair construction of my con- 
duct on their part." * 

One more hindrance was interposed to the ful- 
filment of these wishes. When the Scotch bishops 
had resolved to consecrate, an earnest appeal was 
sent to them from an American clergyman, whose 
own views, as it afterwards appeared, would be in 
some measure thwarted by the consecration of Dr. 
Seabury ; but who now assured them that he desired 
■ c to divert a heavy stroke from episcopacy, which 
was likely to suffer through this consecration," 
which, he asserted, was " against the earnest and 
sound advice of the Archbishops of Canterbury and 
York, to whom Dr. Seabury's design was communi- 
cated, they not thinking him a fit person, especially 
as he was actively and deeply engaged against con- 
gress ; that he would by this forward step render 
episcopacy suspected there, the people not having 

1 Ms. Seabury papers. 



OBJECTION TO HIS CONSECRATION. 209 

had time, after a total derangement of their civil 
affairs, to consider as yet of ecclesiastical ; and if 
it were unexpectedly and rashly introduced among 
them at the instigation of a few clergy only that 
remain, without their being consulted, would occa- 
sion it to be entirely slighted, unless with the appro- 
bation of the state they belong to ; which is what 
they are labouring after just now, having called 
several provincial meetings together this autumn, to 
settle some preliminary articles of a Protestant epis- 
copal Church, as near as may be to that of England 

or Scotland See," he concludes, " if you value 

your own peace and advantage as a Christian so- 
ciety, that your bishops meddle not in this conse- 
cration," &c* 

When this letter reached Scotland, Dr. Seabury 
was there. His sincerity and zeal convinced Bishop 
Skinner of his great fitness for the post to which 
he was designed. The concurrence of the clergy of 
Connecticut was easily established ; and Dr. Ber- 
keley having ascertained that the English primate, 
though he could not give to it a formal sanction, 
was yet by no means hostile to the step, 2 all diffi- 

1 Ms, Seabury papers. 

2 " Dr. Berkeley wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
that application had been made by Dr. Seabury to the Scottish 
bishops for consecration, and begged that, if his grace thought 
the bishops here ran any risk in complying with Seabury's 
request, he would be so good as to give Dr. Berkeley notice 
immediately ; but if his grace was satisfied that there was no 

T 2 



210 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

culties were removed, and he was solemnly admitted 
into the episcopate at Aberdeen on the 14th day of 
November, 1784, by three bishops of the Scottish 
Church (the whole college then consisting but of 
four) — namely, Bishops Kilgour, Petre, and Skinner, 
of Aberdeen, Ross, and Moray. After his conse- 
cration, which was in the Scottish form, the new 
bishop signed, on behalf of his brethren in America, 
certain articles which might serve as a basis for per- 
manent and friendly intercourse between the sister 
Churches. Shortly after, he returned to London, 
whence on the 1st of March he was about to sail 
for America in the ship Triumph, " the master of 
which was his particular acquaintance ; a friendly 
obliging man and a good Churchman, and very 
anxious to have the honour of carrvinsj over the 
Bishop of all America." 

By the " latter end of June" Bishop Seabury was 
again in Connecticut. His " reception from the in- 
habitants" was " friendly," and he " met with no 
disrespect." 1 The Presbyterian ministers appeared 
to be rather alarmed : and, in consequence of his 
arrival, assumed and gave to one another the style 
and title of bishops, which formerly they reprobated 
as a remnant of popery. On the 3d of August he 
met his clergy, and "joyful indeed was the meet- 
danger, there was no occasion to give any answer. Xo answer 
came." A ms. note of Bp. Skinner's, on Dr. Seabury' s letter 
of application. 

1 Ms. Letter of Bp. Seabury to Bp. Skinner. 



FIRST CONVENTION, 211 

ing." The letter from the good bishops and the 
concordat were laid before them, " and cordially 
received." Only as to one article, which engaged 
them to receive the Scotch form for the administra- 
tion of the Holy Eucharist, it was thought best to 
wait for a season until by preaching and conversa- 
tion the minds of the communicants were prepared 
for receiving the Scots office. They feared, too, to 
encourage by their example a disposition to effect 
changes in the Liturgy which had shewed itself in 
the south. Such was Bishop Seabury's entrance 
upon the duties of his office. 

He arrived at a critical time for the American 
Church. The first general convention was soon to 
meet at Philadelphia ; and the knowledge that a bi- 
shop already presided over one of their Churches, 
greatly strengthened the hands of those who desired 
at once to apply for the episcopate. 

The first American convention met according 
to appointment, in October 1785, at Philadelphia; 
seven out of the thirteen states sent to it deputies 
both clerical and lay, and they entered at once on 
their important duties. Three leading subjects 
claimed their chief attention. The first of these was 
the general ecclesiastical constitution of the medi- 
tated union ; the second, the formation of a common 
liturgy ; the third, the steps to be taken for obtain- 
ing an American episcopate. 

Upon the two first questions warm discussion 
arose. The various tempers of the eastern and the 



212 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

southern states were soon displayed. Thus, on the 
general terms of union, the two parties disagreed ; 
one proposing to declare the bishop ex-officio pre- 
sident of the convention ; the others fearful of the 
bishop's power, and so denying him this right. The 
grounds, too, of this difference lay deep. The west- 
ern states would have restrained the bishop from all 
rule ; made him subject to his own convention ; and 
distinguished him from other presbyters only by his 
possession of the powers of ordaining and confirm- 
ing. The southern states, with a more instructed 
faith, truly acknowledged the bishop as possessing, 
by the appointment of Christ, the charge of spiritual 
government. Their tendency, indeed, lay strongly 
to the opposite extreme. They would not only have 
given to the bishop spiritual rule, but would have 
deprived the laity of that power of co-ordinate deli- 
beration and assent, which appear to have been in 
the earliest times their Christian birthright. The 
plans of the eastern Churchmen would have ex- 
cluded from conventions all lay deputies, and con- 
fined deliberation on things ecclesiastical to those in 
holy orders. 

The like difference was shewn in the revision 
of the Book of Common Prayer. While one of the 
Virginian deputies proposed to omit the four first 
petitions of the Litany, in order to get rid of the 
direct acknowledgment of the Trinity in the ador- 
able Godhead ; and whilst in Virginia generally the 
rule most objected to in all the Prayer-book was 



VARIOUS OPINIONS IN CONVENTION. 213 

that which allowed the minister to repel from the 
Eucharist notorious evil-livers ; the wishes of the 
eastern states would have restored to the Commu- 
nion-service some of those early devotions which 
the peculiar aspect of their times had led the Angli- 
can reformers most wisely to omit. 

Such differences boded ill for the result of the 
convention ; but the meek wisdom of its president 
brought it to a safe and harmonious conclusion. 
Doubtful things were left for discussion when their 
body should be fully organised. Whether the bishop 
should preside or not 5 remained for the present un- 
determined ; but the point was at once conceded in 
practice, and afterwards adopted willingly as law. 
A proposed Book of Common Prayer, varying as 
little from the English ritual as the temper of the 
council would allow, was suggested to the various 
state-conventions, and the time thus gained saved 
the Church from the direct proposal of many altera- 
tions which, if they had been all at once resisted 
stiffly, would have been as hotly urged upon the 
other side. 

On the measures to be taken for obtaining the 
episcopate the convention happily agreed. Bishop 
Seabury had declined, with his clergy, attending its 
session, from a fear that it would carry measures 
to which his principles would not allow him to 
assent. The southern states were known to hold 
loose opinions upon Church matters, and expected 
evils were greatly exaggerated. " I have thought 



214 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

it my duty,' 3 writes a clerical correspondent of Bishop 
Skinner, id 1786, " to advise you and the college 
of bishops of the ancient Church of Scotland, of the 
tendency of the bill just brought into the House of 
Lords by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to enable 
the English bishops to consecrate for foreign coun- 
tries, viz., the overthrow of Bishop Seabury of Con- 
necticut. Dr. Smith, Dr. White, and Dr. Provoost, 
three Socinians, have been recommended to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury for consecration, the first to 
be bishop of Maryland, the second of Pennsylvania, 
the third of New York, who are to be answerable 
to a consistory, composed of presbyters and lay 
delegates." All this was gross exaggeration ; but 
Bishop Seabury had ground for apprehension. The 
doctrinal tenets of one of the two first elected bishops 
were probably not wholly orthodox ; and Dr. Smith, 
who was generally named for the episcopate, was 
an ambitious and dangerous man, with low views of 
the Church, and great self-confidence. Accordingly 
the bishop thought it safer to remain away from the 
convention, writing an apology ] for not appearing, 
and explaining plainly and fully his sentiments con- 
cerning their general mode of procedure, and especi- 
ally their degradation of the episcopal dignity. But 
though he was not present, his experience helped to 
guide their decision. It was at once resolved, that 
the succession should be obtained, if possible, at the 

1 Ms. Letter of Bp. Seabury to Bp. Skinner. 



MR. ADAMS. 215 

hands of the English rather than the Scottish bishops. 
To this end an address of convention to the English 
bench was drawn up and signed, and a sub-com- 
mittee named to communicate with the archbishop; 
while, to remove all political objections, the deputies 
applied to the executive within the various states for 
a certified assent to the request now urged. 

These points being settled, and a general eccle- 
siastical constitution ratified, which provided for a 
triennial convention, to consist, besides the bishops, 
of deputies, not more than four, clerical and lay, 
from the Church in every state, who should vote 
state by state, each order possessing a negative upon 
the other, the clergy of each state being subject only 
to its own ecclesiastical authorities, — the council ad- 
journed until the following June, when it hoped to 
receive the answer of the English bishops. 

The address of the convention, with certificates 
from the executives of Maryland, Virginia, Penn- 
sylvania, and New York, was forwarded to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, through the American 
minister. The part taken by Mr. Adams is highly 
to his credit. Not himself an episcopalian, and so 
well aware of all the prejudices which his conduct 
might excite, that he deemed it " bold, daring, and 
hazardous to himself and his,'"' l he made, without 
hesitation, the required address to the archbishop. 
Here, again, the consecration of Dr. Seabury had 

1 Letter to Bp. White, Oct. 27, 1814. 



216 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

greatly prepared the way. He had been well received 
in America, and it was plain that if the mother 
Church continued to refuse the boon, she would 
effectually alienate her western daughter. The arch- 
bishop's answer was received by the committee in 
the following spring. It expressed, on his part and 
on that of all the English bishops, an anxious readi- 
ness to grant the episcopal succession to America, 
but delayed giving a specific pledge until they had 
seen the intended alterations in the liturgy and the 
proposed ecclesiastical constitution. " While we are 
anxious," they concluded, " to give every proof not 
only of our brotherly affection but of our facility in 
forwarding your wishes, we cannot but be extremely 
cautious lest we should be the instruments of esta- 
blishing an ecclesiastical system which will be called 
a branch of the Church of England, but afterwards 
may possibly appear to have departed from it essen- 
tially either in doctrine or in discipline." 

Another letter soon followed, written after the 
receipt of the amended liturgy, and pointing out some 
changes in it with which the English bishops were 
dissatisfied. Amongst these were some unnecessary 
verbal alterations, and the disuse of the Athanasian 
Creed. But that to which they mainly objected was 
the omission of the Nicene Creed, and one clause in 
the Apostles' (" He descended into hell"). With one 
provision also of the constitution they found fault, 
from its seeming to subject bishops to trial by the 
laity and the inferior clergy; and they suggested hints 



ENGLISH BISHOPS* REMONSTRANCE. 217 

as to the care that should be taken in the choice of 
those who were to be elected bishops, reminding 
the convention that the credit of the English Church 
would be at stake in the prosperity of this her 
daughter branch. On these points, therefore, they 
expressed their earnest hope that the ensuing con- 
vention would give them satisfaction, in which ex- 
pectation they would at once prepare a bill, by 
which the necessary powers would be imparted to 
them. Before this letter i eached America the con- 
vention had assembled and revised the constitution 
in the very point to which the bishops had objected, 
but the alterations in the liturgy remained untouched. 
Great fault had been found with them by all the 
more consistent Churchmen of America. " I learn 
from others," writes Bishop Seabury to his friends 
the Scottish bishops, " that at this convention they 
have discarded the use, at least left it discretional, 
of the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, and the ob- 
servation of saints'-days ; omitted the article of the 
descent into hell, in the Apostles' Creed ; reduced 
the Thirty -nine Articles to twenty ; made such al- 
terations in the liturgy and offices as makes a new 
Prayer-book necessary." 

On receiving the remonstrance from the English 
bishops, it was resolved, by the committee charged 
with the negotiation, that these points should again 
be taken into full consideration, and for this pur- 
pose the convention was called together in October. 
There was a general wish to satisfy the English 
u 



218 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



prelates, of which the friends of peace made careful 
use. They might, indeed, receive the true succes- 
sion from the Scottish bishops, and by the Danes 
it had been already offered ; but the whole body 
earnestly desired to receive it from the Church 
which had originally sent them forth. In this spirit 
they entered on the question, and, after full debate, 
resolved to restore to its place the clause they had 
omitted in the Apostles' Creed, and to replace in 
their liturgy that of Nicaea. On some minor points, 
and as to the liturgical employment of the Athanasian 
Creed, they still affirmed their former sentence. 

With these concessions they doubted not the 
English prelates would be satisfied, and they pro- 
ceeded therefore to sign the testimonials of three 
presbyters, the Rev. William White, the Rev. Samuel 
Provoost, and the Rev. David Griffith, who had been 
elected to the office of a bishop by the conventions 
of Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia. Early in 
the following month, Dr. White and Dr. Provoost 
sailed for England. A painful cause is given for Dr. 
Griffith's absence from their company. He was too 
poor to bear the necessary cost of such a journey, 
and the Virginian Church had not raised funds to 
forward him upon his way. On Wednesday the 29th 
of November, the bishops elect arrived in London, 
and on the following Monday they were presented 
by Mr. Adams, the American ambassador, to the 
Archbishop at Lambeth. Several interviews suc- 
ceeded. The conclusions of the convention, and 



ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOPS. 219 

the testimonials of the bishops, satisfied the English 
prelates; and after a gratifying audience of the king, 
on Sunday, the 4th of February 1787, in the Archi- 
episcopal Chapel of Lambeth, these two presbyters 
of the Church in America were consecrated bishops 
by the two archbishops and the bishops of Bath and 
Wells and Peterborough. Thus, at last, did Eng- 
land grant to the daughter Church this great and 
necessary boon. 

For almost two whole centuries had she, by evil 
counsels, been persuaded to withhold it, until, as it 
would seem, the fierce struggle of the war of indepen- 
dence, and the loss of these great colonies, chastised 
her long neglect, and by a new and utterly unlooked- 
for issue, led her to discharge this claim of right. 
Awful, doubtless, was the hour to these two when the 
holy office was conferred upon them ; when, at the 
hands of him, whom Bishop White, full of affectionate 
respect for his mother Church, calls this " great and 
good archbishop," they were set apart to bear into 
the western wilderness the likeness and the office of 
the first apostles. Solemn must have been their 
landing on the 7th of April, the afternoon of Easter 
Sunday (1787), upon the shores of their own land, 
as the especial witnesses of that resurrection of which 
" the holy Church throughout all the world" was on 
that day keeping glad remembrance, — the especial 
stewards of those mysteries which she was on that 
day dispensing unto all her faithful children. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Convention assembles — Case of Dr. Bass — Bishop Seabury joins the 
Convention — The Liturgy — First and succeeding consecrations — 
Period of depression — Its causes — Ecclesiastical constitution- 
Parish— Diocese— Convention— Laity in convention— Anglo-Saxon 
usage — Difficulties of true organisation in America — Neglect of 
the mother-country. 

The Church assembled in convention after the arri- 
val of the bishops at Philadelphia, July 28, 17S9. 
For the first time it was gathered together in the full 
likeness of that council to which " the apostles and 
elders came together at Jerusalem." 1 For now, as 
then, it met with bishops at its head, with presbyters 
and deacons, each in their own order, ministering 
under them, and with the laity, " the multitude of 
the faithful," taking solemn council for the welfare 
of their Zion. 

There was great need in that synod of meekness 
and heavenly wisdom. The minds of men were still 
angry and unsettled. They knew little of the prin- 
ciples on which they were to act ; and points of the 
utmost delicacy and moment were sure to come under 
consideration. On the third day of their meeting, after 

1 Acts iv. 6. 



ELECTION OF DR. BASS. 221 

some preliminary business, an application from the 
clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire gave 
rise to much discussion. The " act" of these states, 
after setting forth their ''gratitude to God for having 
lately blessed the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
United States of America with a complete and entire 
ministry," proceeded to declare that to secure for their 
people " the benefit and advantage of those offices, 
the administration of which belongs to the highest 
order of the ministry, and to encourage and promote 
a union of the whole Episcopal Church in their 
states, and to perfect and compact this mystical 
body of Christ, we do hereby nominate, elect, and 
appoint the Rev. Edward Bass, a presbyter of the 
Church, to be our bishop ; and we do promise and 
engage to receive him as such, and to render to him 
all canonical obedience and submission, when canoni- 
cally consecrated and invested with the apostolic 
office and powers. And we now address the right 
reverend the bishops in the states of Connecticut 
New York, and Pennsylvania, praying their united 
assistance in consecrating our said brother, and ca- 
nonically investing him with the apostolic office and 
powers." 

This address brought at once before the conven- 
tion the relation of Bishop Seabury to its own body, 
and to the two bishops of the English line. Hap- 
pily Bishop Provoost was not at Philadelphia, and 
it was therefore left to the moderate and healing 
spirit of his brother bishop to frame an answer to 
u 2 



222 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the clergy of the east. The convention first solemnly 
recorded its conviction of the rightful consecration of 
the Bishop of Connecticut, and afterwards resolved 
that a " complete order of bishops, derived as well 
under the English as the Scottish line of Episcopacy, 
now subsisted within the United States ; and that they 
were fully competent to every proper act and duty 
of a bishop's office. 5 ' It further proceeded to express 
its wish that these three bishops (the number always 
held canonically necessary for a rightful consecra- 
tion) should proceed to consecrate the elected bishop 
of the eastern clergy, so soon as the New-England 
Churches should have agreed in convention to articles 
of discipline and union with the general body. 

To allow time for this union, the convention, 
after a session of ten days, agreed to a two-months' 
adjournment, having first determined that as soon as 
the united Church possessed three bishops, the mem- 
bers of that order should constitute a separate house 
from that of the clerical and lay deputies. 

On the 29th of September 1789, the adjourned 
session opened ; and to the joy of all, the attendance 
of Bishop Seabury and two of his New-England 
clergy w^as announced. Their presence was indeed 
important ; for it not only secured the union of the 
Church throughout the several states, but it brought 
to those counsels by which their infant institutions 
must be formed, the aid of principles which were 
most wanting in the southern states. Amongst them 
the prevailing tone, both as to discipline and doctrine, 



DANGER FROM LATITUDINARIAN BIAS. 223 

was low and uncertain. Hence had arisen the de- 
sire of removing from the opening of the litany the 
addresses to the blessed Trinity. Hence their jeal- 
ousy of even the lightest discipline. Hence, too, it 
happened that the lay deputy sent by Virginia to 
convention was an ordained presbyter, who, in the 
time of the Church's sufferings, had renounced his 
orders. And thus, all through this convention, he 
who, in purer times, would have been marked out 
for spiritual censure, took, without doubt or remon- 
strance, a leading part in fashioning the discipline 
and order of their infant communion. To a temper 
thus bordering on latitudinarian views, Bishop White, 
if he had stood alone, would, from natural kindness, 
and perhaps from personal inclination, have been too 
much disposed to yield, and some fatal bias might 
have been given to their earliest institutions ; but 
in the presence of Bishop Seabury and those about 
him, a check was provided on such innovations. 
With the strongest attachment to the distinctive ar- 
ticles of the Christian faith, the New-England clergy 
held, as we have seen, most firmly to the model of 
apostolical order ; and in these counteracting tend- 
encies was the best hope of the convention coming 
to a safe and sound conclusion. 

This difference of views between the east and 
south was seen at once. Before the eastern clergy 
gave in their adhesion to the articles of union, they 
required that, by the alteration of the third, there 
should be given to the board of bishops the power of 



224 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

originating acts for the concurrence of the lower 
house, with a negative on their conclusions. The 
first point was easily conceded. The second, for 
the present, was made the subject of a compromise. 
It was agreed that the non-assent of the bishops 
should negative all acts to which four-fifths of the 
lower house did not still adhere. The absolute 
negative was referred to the collective judgment of 
the several diocesan conventions. Upon this agree- 
ment Bishop Seabury, and the three New-England 
presbyters, gave in their adhesion to the general 
constitution, and took their seats in the conven- 
tion. 

Important matters came at once into discussion. 
The proposed Prayer-book, drawn up in 1785, had 
kindled a flame of opposition. Some were offended 
at the alterations of the English ritual, and more at 
the want of alteration. Its compilers had unwisely 
printed a large edition, and from this were under- 
stood to regard it rather as a settled than a projected 
form. The lower house accordingly entered with 
some warmth on this discussion. Instead of pro- 
posing, as before, to take the existing liturgy, and 
merely alter in it what required adjustment, they, 
the more completely to dismiss the obnoxious book, 
appointed committees " to prepare a litany," " to 
prepare a communion-service," " a morning and 
evening prayer," and other " offices." 

In this they ran no slight peril. Scarcely with 
any thing beside is the well-being of the Church 



LITURGIES. 225 

bound up so closely as with the full orthodoxy of 
its liturgies. On this depends, not only the unity 
of all her children, but also, in great measure, their 
whole religious character. Hence from the earliest 
times these have been a matter of especial care. 
By one council 1 it was ordered, " that the prayers, 
prefaces, impositions of hands, which are confirmed 
by the synod, be observed and used by all men;", 
and another 2 gives the reason for this order, " lest, 
through ignorance or carelessness, any thing con- 
trary to the faith should be vented or uttered before 
God, or offered up to Him in the church." 

In this wholesome dread, during times of purity, 
change had always been brought cautiously and with 
a sparing hand into the older offices. Nor was 
there a more certain sign and instrument of increas- 
ing corruption than when the public liturgies, which 
had been first veiled from common sight by the 
mystery of a learned language, began to embody 
largely the errors of a later time. These, however, 
were rather additions than substitutions. So that 
even in the worst times the golden thread of pri- 
mitive truth might be traced by the spiritual eye 
through all the subtle entanglement of more modern 
error. The endeavour of our own reformers was, to 
keep this precious thread unbroken, whilst they freed 
it from the false inventions by which it was well- 
nigh concealed. The old books of common English 

i Con. Carth. can. 106. 
2 Council of Milan, can. 12. 



226 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

use had been taken by the bishops and doctors to 
whom this work was entrusted ; and from them the 
new insertions which had crept gradually in with 
the spread of Romish errors were cast out, that the 
oldest offices might still remain amongst us, and 
set the tone of such additions as the change of cus- 
toms and of times required. On this point there 
had been a long and anxious struggle between Eng- 
lish Churchmen and the Puritans ; for these wished 
for new prayers, whilst the true sons of the old 
English Church strove to retain this sure mark and 
instrument of their oneness with the body of Christ 
from the beginning, that they spoke in praise and 
prayer, and in intercession and confession, as far as 
might be, in the same accents in which their fore- 
fathers had worshipped God from the time when 
the little flock were gathered in " an upper cham- 
ber," where " the doors were shut for fear of the 
Jews." 

The existence of such a liturgy was put at 
hazard in America ; but, by God's blessing, the 
danger was averted. The house of bishops was 
now duly constituted ; and in the continued absence 
of the Bishop of New York, it was composed of 
Bishops Seabury and White. Their first entrance 
on their duties afforded a hopeful promise for the 
issue ; for as meekness ever waits upon true wis- 
dom, there was a token of wise counsel in Bishop 
White's instant cession of precedence to his eastern 
brother on the ground of his seniority of consecra- 



CHANGES IN THE PRAYER-BOOK. 227 

tion. Their harmonious action turned aside the 
danger ; they took as their guide the old offices of 
their communion ; and making only needful changes, 
by degrees won over the general voice on nearly 
every point. 

Bishop White has recorded the remark of a by- 
stander, which strikingly illustrates the working of 
more thoughtful minds at that important crisis : — 
" When I hear these things, I look back to the 
origin of the Prayer-book, and represent to my 
mind the spirits of its venerable compilers ascend- 
ing to heaven in the flames of martyrdom that con- 
sumed their bodies. I then look at the improvers 
of this book in ... . and .... and .... The con- 
sequence is, that I am not sanguine in my expecta- 
tions of your meditated changes in the liturgy." 

The character of the chief changes which were 
made is curious and instructive. They shew the 
great peril of attempting to improve such fixed and 
ascertained forms ; for they are marked by a tend- 
ency to opposite extremes. Thus, on the one side, 
there were struck out from the Prayer-book the 
Athanasian Creed and the absolution in the Visita- 
tion of the Sick ; whilst the use of the sign of the 
cross in baptism, and " Receive ye the Holy Ghost" 
in the ordinal, are left to the choice of the minister. 
Thus, also, whilst to the question, "What is the in- 
ward part or thing signified in the Lord's supper?" 
the answer of the English Catechism, " The body 
and blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed 



228 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's 
supper," is changed into " The body and blood of 
Christ, which are spiritually taken and received by 
the faithful in the Lord's supper ;" at the same 
time, upon the other side, in the Office for the Holy 
Communion there were inserted the prayers of in- 
vocation and oblation, which are contained in the 
earliest liturgies. These had been retained in the 
first English Book of Common Prayer put forth in 
the reign of Edward VI. by " the archbishop and 
other learned and discreet divines;'' 1 but upon its 
subsequent revision they were both omitted ; their 
essential parts, as our reformers thought, being found 
in other parts of the service, whilst their use might 
prove dangerous at a time when popish superstition 
had obscured that holy mystery, and lowered its 
spiritual reality to a gross and carnal conceit. In 
the ancient Scottish Prayer-book, which was com- 
piled at a later period, these forms had been re- 
stored ; and in it their use was familiar to Bishop 
Seabury. He was disposed to overvalue their pre- 
sence ; hardly, as he owned to Bishop White, consi- 
dering the service from which they were absent as 
" amounting strictly to a consecration." He there- 
fore pressed earnestly their restoration. From his 
brother bishop he met with no opposition : Bishop 
White having always admired " the beauty of those 
ancient forms, and seeing no superstition in them.'' 2 

1 a.d. 1548. Statutes at large, vol. ii. p. 393. 

2 Appendix to Bishop White's Memorial. 



COMMUNION-OFFICE. 229 

No remark of any sort was made on their insertion 
in the lower house ; and they accordingly form part 
of the American Prayer-book. 1 

1 The Communion-office, therefore, is thus altered from 
our own. After what is with us the conclusion of the prayer 
of consecration, the prayer of oblation follows, in these words : 
" Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, according to the 
institution of Thy dearly beloved Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
we Thy humble servants do celebrate and make here before Thy 
divine Majesty, with these Thy holy gifts which we now offer 
unto Thee, the memorial Thy Son hath commanded us to make ; 
having in remembrance His blessed passion and precious death, 
His mighty resurrection and glorious ascension ; rendering unto 
Thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured 
unto us by the same." Then succeeds the Invocation, in these 
words : " And we most humbly beseech Thee, O merciful Fa- 
ther, to hear us ; and, of Thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to 
bless and sanctify with Thy word and Holy Spirit these Thy 
gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that we, receiving them 
according to Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institu- 
tion in remembrance of His death and passion, may be par- 
takers of His most blessed body and blood. And we earnestly 
desire Thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our 
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ; most humbly beseeching 
Thee to grant, that by the merits and death of Thy Son Jesus 
Christ, and through faith in His blood, we, and all Thy whole 
Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other bene- 
fits of His passion. And here we offer and present unto Thee, 
O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, 
holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee ; humbly beseeching Thee, 
that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this holy 
communion, may worthily receive the most precious body and 
blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with Thy grace and 
heavenly benediction, and be made one body with Him, that He 
X 



230 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

One other important change came into dehate. 
From the services of "the proposed Prayer-book" 
had been struck out the whole Nicene creed, and 
that clause of the Apostles' which declares of our 
Lord that " He descended into hell.' 5 The Nicene 
creed was now reinserted ; and after much discus- 
sion, the use of the disputed clause allowed ; the 
lower house not consenting to its absolute adoption. 
In the first printed Prayer-books it was inserted 
between brackets ; but this seeming to stamp it as 
apocryphal, the next convention placed, instead of 
them, this discretionary rubric : " And any Churches 
may omit the words, * He descended into hell ;' or 
may, instead of them, use the words, ' He went into 
the place of departed spirits,' which are considered 
as words of the same meaning in the creed." 

A selection of Psalms, fixed portions of which 
might be used instead of those which came in daily 
order in the Psalter, was inserted in the Prayer- 
book. This was the work of the lower house, and 
is another instance of the risk attending all such 
changes. The first principle of any such selection 
is manifestly false. It is a denial of the great 

may dwell in them and they in Him. And although we are 
unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto Thee any 
sacrifice, yet we beseech Thee to accept this our bounden duty 
and service, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our of- 
fences ; through Jesus Christ our Lord ; by whom and through 
whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory 
be unto Thee, O Father Almighty, world without end. Amen." 



BOOK OF COMMON FRAYER. 231 

truth, that in those words of inspiration we find 
the spirit-struggles of the King of Israel answer to 
our own as face to face. And this first error led 
to many others. One aim of the compilers was to 
shorten the service ; their success may be gathered 
from the words of Bishop White, who considers 
" the omissions as very capricious, and the selec- 
tions in general as having added to the length of the 
morning and evening prayer." Some of his expres- 
sions shew, that even he was unawares drawn, by 
the fault of his position, into an unconscious disre- 
spect to Holy Scripture, or he would not have ven- 
tured, as if dealing with some human composition, 
to commend " the excellency of psalms overlooked 
by gentlemen of judgment and taste." These were 
the chief changes in the Common Prayer ; the others 
aiming chiefly, and with small success, at introdu- 
cing greater verbal correctness into our old Saxon 
dialect. 1 

Such is the Book of Common Prayer, " declared 
by the bishops, the clergy, and the laity of the Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church in America in convention 
to be the liturgy of" their " Church :" and upon the 
whole, in spite of some alterations which we must 
deem unhappy, and more which we esteem needless^ 
it remains as a living proof of that gratitude which 
its preface expresses to the Church of England, 
"to which, under God, she is indebted for her first 

1 In the Appendix may be found a catalogue of nearly all 
these alterations. 



232 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

foundation, and a long continuance of nursing care 
and protection ;" since, upon the whole, it fulfils 
the profession, that " she is far from intending to 
depart from the Church of England in any essential 
point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, or farther 
than local circumstances require." 1 

The convention broke up without the consecra- 
tion of the elected bishop of Massachusetts : a direct 
vote, as we have seen, acknowledged Bishop Sea- 
bury 's consecration ; and with his co-operation, Dr. 
Bass might have been admitted to the highest order 
of the priesthood. But Bishop White conceived 
that he was pledged to the archbishop to hand on 
the English line unmixed. The consecration, there- 
fore, was postponed until this engagement should 
have been relaxed. In the event, this proved need- 
less, since, in the following year (Sept. 1790), Dr. 
Madison, elected as bishop of Virginia, crossed to 
England, and was duly consecrated bishop ; and 
thus, 184 years after her planting, the Church in 
Virginia first saw a bishop of her own within her 
borders. 

The ensuing convention witnessed the first Ame- 
rican consecration. At its session, the upper house 
consisted of Bishops Seabury, White, Provoost, and 
Madison. This first meeting of Bishops Seabury 
and Provoost was full of interest, although the 
unhappy temper of the latter made it a time of 

1 Preface to American Common Prayer. 



FIRST AMERICAN CONSECRATION. 233 

much anxiety. Narrow to a high degree in mind, 
and full of prejudice against his eastern brother, the 
Bishop of New York resisted bitterly the title to 
presidency, which by the canon of the last conven- 
tion would be his in right of seniority ; and was 
even ready to deny, at all hazards, the regularity of 
his consecration. The first point was, with Chris- 
tian meekness, ceded by the elder bishop ; and 
through the influence of Dr. White, all further open 
opposition was dropped by Bishop Provoost. 

On the 17th of September, 1792, Dr. Claggett, 
bishop elect, was consecrated by the laying on of 
hands of Bishops Provoost, Seabury, White, and 
Madison. Thus was the Church at last complete 
in all its functions, and able to expand itself as God 
might give it grace and opportunity to meet the 
many wants of that vast continent in which it was 
now fully planted. Other consecrations soon suc- 
ceeded. In 1795, Dr. Smith was consecrated bishop 
of South Carolina; and in 1797, Dr. Bass of Mas- 
sachusetts ; whilst in the same year Dr. Jarvis was 
called to succeed the first bishop of Connecticut. 
The system of the Church was every day becoming 
more perfectly consolidated. In the conventions of 
1792, 1799, and 1801, the question of articles was 
frequently discussed. Various opinions from time 
to time seemed to predominate. Some in leading 
station, and pf. great laxity as to the first truths of 
the faith, were, like Bishop Provoost, desirous to 
avoid entirely what they unhappily conceived to be a 
x 2 



234 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

needless restriction on the right of private judgment. 
Wiser councils defeated this proposal ; but, what 
should be the articles adopted, still remained an 
anxious question. The English articles had been 
at first assumed to be the nucleus of the new collec- 
tion ; and into them such changes as appeared expe- 
dient were to be inserted. The result may easily 
be guessed ; one party objected to one set of pro- 
positions, the retrenchment of a second was required 
by others, until absolute division seemed rapidly 
approaching. In this dilemma it was resolved, as 
a means of securing peace, that the English articles 
should be received, with such changes only as would 
make them suit republican America, and consist 
with the alterations in the creeds detailed on a 
former page. 1 

At this time the Church may be considered as 
rooted in that land. Native bishops witnessed for 
the resurrection of the Lord ; from one, obtained 
almost by stealth from Scotland, they had already 
multiplied to seven, and promised to hand on un- 
broken the appointed orders of the ministry. Already 
(1795) the first bishop (Seabury) had entered on 
his rest, and his successor been admitted in his 
room into the apostolic college. There was now, 
in truth, an American Church. Of old the proper 
title of the body so described would have been the 
English Church in America, if indeed that sickly 

1 The use of the Book of Homilies is suspended until they 
have been cleared from "obsolete phrases and local references." 



PERIOD OF DEPRESSION. 235 

and almost severed branch could claim true union 
with the parent stock. But it was now planted in 
the wide western continent ; and many and earnest 
were the prayers of faithful men, that its branches 
might spread unto the sea and its boughs unto the 
river. It had taken root, as in every other soil ; and 
good hope there was that it would cover the land. 
The Church might now be read there by her dis- 
tinctive characters. This was a great matter gained. 
For this, through long years of weakness and des- 
titution, the most zealous and devoted hearts in 
America had longed and prayed. By a most un- 
expected turn had the answer of those prayers 
been sent, as one healing fruit of the American 
rebellion. Surely it was thus given as a reproof 
to the mother-country for her long denial to her 
offspring of the most valuable part of their inhe- 
ritance. 

But though the Church was now thus complete in 
its organisation, it did not, as we might fondly hope, 
shoot forth at once into full strength and vigour. 
Almost every where there was much of feebleness 
about its growth, and there were districts in which 
it seemed to languish and decay. " The period 
through which for some years our narrative has 
been taking us," says Dr. Hawks, 1 referring to this 
time, " is one, for the most part, of such gloomy 
darkness that the smallest ray of light is felt to be 

1 Contributions to EccL Hist, of Virginia, p. 295. 



236 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

a blessing." Even when " the dawning light of a 
brighter day" was rising on Virginia, " the jour- 
nals of the convention by which Bishop Moore was 
elected shew the presence of but seven clergymen 
and seventeen laymen. We look back upon the 
past, and are struck with the contrast. Seven clergy- 
men w r ere all that could be convened to transact the 
most important measure which our conventions are 
ever called on to perform, and this in a territory 
where once more than ten times seven regularly served 
at the altar. We look back farther still, and find 
the Church, after the lapse of 200 years, numbering 
about as many ministers as she possessed at the 
close of the first eight years of her existence." 

But little better is the account of things in Mary- 
land. " In 1803 there was a spirit of indifference 
to religion and the Church too extensively prevalent 
in the parishes : nearly one-half of them were vacant; 
in some, all ministerial support had ceased. Some 
few of the clergy had deserted their stations ; and of 
the residue, several, disheartened and embarrassed 
by inadequate means of living, had sought subsist- 
ence in other states. Infidelity and fanaticism were 
increasing ; and, on the whole, there never was a 
time when ministers were more needed, or when it 
was more difficult to obtain them." 1 In Pennsylvania 
it was much the same. The number of the clergy 
here continued still so small, " that even the old 
parishes, existing before the revolution, could not 

1 Dr. Hawks's Memorials of Virginia, pp. 350, 351. 



CAUSES OF DEPRESSION. 237 

be supplied, much less could the formation of new 
congregations be attempted. 1 Such was the gene- 
ral state of things during the first years of this cen- 
tury. 

Many causes tended to produce this deep de- 
pression ; some of these were inherent in the general 
temper of American society and manners, but many 
more may undoubtedly be traced to the peculiar con- 
ditions under which the Church was now established. 
To gain a clear view of the history of those times, 
we must shortly glance at each of these, and endea- 
vour to trace in action the working of the ecclesias- 
tical constitution as it had been recently remodelled. 
The first great hindrance to its strength was the 
low^ tone of feeling and of doctrine which in the 
former days of our neglect had crept over its mem- 
bers. There was little attachment to the Church, 
little veneration for her character, little knowledge 
or value of her distinctive claims ; there were many 
recollections of careless shepherds, of clergy who dis- 
graced their calling. Thus there was widely spread 
abroad a want of reverence for holy things and holy 
persons; there was among the laity a feverish readi- 
ness to constitute themselves watchmen over their 
appointed watchmen, which was most injurious in its 
effect both to the clergy and to themselves. 

These evils were further aggravated by the pe- 
culiar position of the newly-constituted body with 
respect to the communions round it, which claimed 
1 Life of Bishop White, p. 154. 



238 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

equally the Christian name, but were strangers to 
the apostolic form and discipline; for it was thus 
subjected, at the same time, to the weakness both 
of infancy and of decrepitude. In all those associa- 
tions and prescriptive rights whereby an hereditary 
Church maintains her hold upon the love and rever- 
ence of men, she was necessarily wanting. She had 
no territorial existence ; men belonged to her not 
because they were born within her pale, because in 
the old time holy pastors of her communion had 
stood up there amongst their Pagan forefathers, and 
bowed their rugged hearts by the message of the 
everlasting Gospel, and then gathered them into a 
visible fellowship, into which they too, in their turn, 
had been baptised, and to which they owed from 
infancy an hereditary reverence ; nor even because 
they now joined a company of others who had been 
trained amidst such associations ; but they belonged 
to her because they chose to join her — because she 
was more reasonable or more comely in their eyes than 
others — because they willed it ; and to this action of 
their will and that of others round them, it seemed as 
if she owed her being : like the constitution of their 
nation, she seemed self-formed through their agency. 
They were not grafted into a pre-existing body — 
they were the framers of a new society ; and they felt 
towards it, therefore, ever afterwards, as towards 
that which they might support, remodel, or forsake at 
will — as their cause so long as they maintained it — as 
that which they had a title to conduct as they would. 



CAUSES OF DEPRESSION. 239 

And hence they were almost strangers to the rever- 
ence and affection of children to a spiritual mother : 
this, under their circumstances, could only grow 
up with time and slowly formed associations ; and 
so for the present the weakness of infancy was on 
her. 

On the other hand, there w T as amongst them 
little of the strength of the Church's youth ; for this 
is founded on the ardent affection of fresh converts 
to the great heart-truths of Christ's blessed Gospel. 
The small company of gathered believers in any 
land where, for the first time, the cross of Christ is 
planted, are a body every one of whom is personally 
convinced of the reality of that common spiritual 
life into which he is now admitted. They are all well 
nigh overpowered by the first discovery of their 
true greatness and blessedness in Christ, and their 
utter misery without Him. The Church has brought 
them the glorious message of their new creation, 
and for it they are ready, if need be, to go through 
fire and water ; and so, though they may be few in 
number, they are great in strength, for every one 
of them is a host : each may go forth in God's 
strength and chase a thousand. But this could not 
be the case with this infant communion. She was 
young indeed, but she was shorn of the strength 
of her youth. The message she bore was familiar 
to the ears of those to whom she spoke ; she had to 
deal with a population calling itself Christian, or, at 
least, well acquainted with all the offers of Chris- 



240 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tianity ; she stood but as a new sect amongst sects ; ] 
she seemed to them to be contending for nice dis- 
tinctions, subtle refinements, perhaps doubtful claims. 
This weakened every where the effect of her testi- 
mony with others, and it tended to lower her own 
tone, — to lead her to stand upon the defensive, — to 
act and speak, and often, we may fear, think of 
herself, as nothing more than one amongst the many 
round her, and of her errand, as rather to make pro- 
selytes to the dogma of episcopacy, than to win 
living souls to Christ. 

In these circumstances may doubtless be found 
reasons for the comparatively small effect which, 
at first, followed her implanting in America as the 
true Church of that great people. But beyond this 
cause, weakness existed in her peculiar organisation. 
To enter fully into these, we must review shortly 
the system of ecclesiastical polity which was at that 
time established. This in outline was as follows : — 
The union of the whole Church was maintained by 
a " general convention" or assembly " of clerical 
and lay deputies" elected by each diocese, not to 
exceed four of each order, which met once in three 

1 The language of the preface to her Prayer-book unhappily- 
favoured this view, in declaring that the result of the war of 
independence was to " leave the different denominations of 
Christians at full and equal liberty to model and organise their 
respective churches, and forms of worship and discipline, in 
such manner as they might judge most convenient for their 
future prosperity." 



ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITUTION. 241 

years to pass general canons, and determine any 
question which concerned the common interests of 
the whole Church ; each diocese to have one vote ; 
all questions to be settled by a majority of voices, 
each order having a negative upon the other when- 
ever they should be required to vote by orders. 
Further, a like body of lay deputies and clergy met 
every year in " diocesan convention," to order, in 
subjection to the general canons, all w T hieh specially 
concerned that diocese. One function of the dio- 
cesan convention was to nominate a " standing com- 
mittee," which, during the intervals between its 
session, carried its decisions into execution in the 
diocese, and, with its fellow-committees, formed, in 
some respects, a standing council of the whole 
Church. Within the diocese, again, each separate 
parish had its own vestry, w T hich, besides possessing 
many administrative powers, elected its delegates for 
the " diocesan convention." 

A very little inspection will shew the deficiencies 
of all this scheme of polity, which was, in fact, 
copied, in the main, from the political institutions 
of the newly-founded republic, and rested, there- 
fore, far too much upon the choice and self-govern- 
ment of all its members. It is of great moment that 
we trace this out, because it will shew us the root 
of many of the infirmities and difficulties by which 
the Church has been beset. We can, indeed, only 
trace the outward side of such evils ; we can inquire 
into defects of organisation and errors in systems of 

Y 



242 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

polity and discipline, and we can do no more ; but 
in doing this we must never overlook the master- 
truth, that in the presence of the blessed Spirit of 
the Lord is the onlv life and strength of the whole 
Church. His gracious breath revives its love and 
purity ; His withdrawal leaves it dry and withered. 
The secret history of a multitude of hearts may 
therefore account, in any land, for its welfare or 
decline, but that history is secret as the pathway 
of the Lord amongst the mighty waters. On this, 
therefore, we cannot enter ; not from undervaluing 
its first importance, but because it is a hidden thing, 
to which we cannot reach. We must be contented 
if we can discover the external causes with which 
these mighty influences are by God's will connected ; 
and this is our intention here. 

To begin, then, with the lowest subdivision. 
The title " parish" in America has a widely dif- 
ferent meaning from that which it bears with us. 
It is not a certain district of a diocese committed by 
its bishop to the spiritual care of a presbyter, who 
is to regard all within it as his charge, for whom he 
is to care now, and to give account hereafter, " whe- 
ther they will hear or whether they will forbear :" 
it w r as merely a set of persons who associated them- 
selves together and agreed to act and worship to- 
gether in a certain place, and under certain rules, 
because they preferred the episcopal form to any 
other. Their very corporate existence was the con- 
sequence of their own choice and will, not the result 



ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITUTION. 243 

of care taken for them ; and this principle was pre- 
sent every where. After a time these men deter- 
mined upon building a church ; they built it, and 
divided its area into pews, which they took to them- 
selves; so that the poor were from the first ex- 
cluded, because they could not pay their share 
towards the expenses of the building, which now 
belonged to the body corporate in whose decision 
it originated. Here was the first grievous fault : 
" to the poor the Gospel was" not " preached." The 
next was of a different kind, but no less real. The 
body thus formed applied to the convention of the 
diocese in which it was situated for admission as a 
part of that diocese ■; it obtained from the legislature 
the privileges of a body corporate, and it began to 
exercise its rights. Accordingly, in Easter week of 
every year all the holders of the pews met together 
to elect by ballot a vestry, which might consist of 
any number not exceeding ten. From this number 
two wardens were appointed, one by the clergyman 1 
and one by the vestry. The vestry being thus 
organised, elected out of their own body a trea- 
surer, secretary, and delegates to the diocesan con- 
vention. 

To this vestry the management of all the affairs 
of the parish was committed, and this lay body not 
only conducted its pecuniary concerns, but settled 
the payment of the minister, " engaged the services 

1 In the greater number of cases the wardens are both ap- 
pointed by the vestry. 



244 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of a clergyman in cases of a vacancy;" 1 and if it 
deemed it right, provided also an assistant minister. 
Thus, by this system, not only was the pastor de- 
pendent on the offerings of his flock, but he derived 
his authority from them, and to them he was respon- 
sible. They at first nominated him to his post, and 
afterwards, through the vestry, in a great measure 
controlled his conduct. The practical evils which 
flowed from this unsound principle need scarcely be 
pointed out. The course of this history will re- 
quire us to notice hereafter some striking instances 
in which the Episcopal clergy, as a body, have not 
dared to raise an open testimony against national 
corruption. Such must be too often the result of 
arrangements such as these. The very notion of 
the Christian ministry presupposes in the witness 
for his Lord entire independence of those to whom 
he is sent. He must be ready to withstand and to 
rebuke evil principles and evil practices wherever 
they are found ; and if he be not, it is soon disco- 
vered that the salt of the world hath lost its savour. 
For this end it was, that since the power of working 
miracles has been withdrawn, the whole system of the 
Church has sought to provide for the independence 
of those w T ho w r ere to be, by the necessity of their of- 
fice, bold rebukers of sin, and, if need be, patient 
sufferers for the truth. The wisdom with which it 
had secured this end, by making the clergy depend- 

1 The American expression. CaswalTs American Church, 
p. 66. 



PARISH AND DIOCESE. 245 

ent only on itself, was one great secret of the power 
and prevalence of papal Rome. Amongst ourselves 
the same end has been greatly promoted by the ex- 
istence of an endowed national establishment. For, 
though the spirit which fills the heart of confessors 
and martyrs is of far too high and noble a character 
to be directly affected by such an influence, yet in 
the long-run the temper of any large body of men 
will be surely, though unconsciously, depressed or 
raised by the dependence or independence of the 
position which they occupy. 

In America, all things tend to make the clergy 
keenly feel their want of independence. So far does 
this extend, that it can hardly fail to act injuriously 
upon their own estimate of their spiritual position. 
It is hardly to be expected that men who are thus 
taught from the first to view themselves merely as 
the selected and paid agents of a lay board can, as a 
body, fully realise their high character as the fear- 
less witnesses for Christ's truth in the face of an evil 
generation. Noble exceptions, indeed, there have 
been among the western clergy — Christian heroes, 
who have risen above the weakening influence of the 
system under which they live ; but of that system 
the tendency is no less certain. It is to make the 
pastor wholly dependent upon those to whom he 
ministers. 

Next to the parish comes the diocese, which con- 
sists of all the parishes within any one state, which, 
having organised themselves according to the rules 
y 2 



246 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the general convention, have been admitted into 
union with it. Here, again, the same faulty princi- 
ple was present. A " diocese," in the language of the 
Church, has ever meant a certain portion of Christ's 
flock committed to the special charge of one chief 
pastor, who fills for it the office which our Lord 
entrusted to His first apostles. But in America a 
diocese meant nothing more than a federal common- 
wealth of " parishes," associated on certain prescribed 
conditions with each other and the general convention. 
So far from dependence on one bishop defining its 
character and marking its limits, it might, and of- 
ten must, 1 for years, by the general canons of the 
Church, have no bishop at all. For, while any num- 
ber of parishes in any state were invited by the con- 
stitution to form themselves into a " diocese," it was 
specially enjoined 2 that they should not have the 
right of electing a bishop until six presbyters had 
been duly settled within that state, in charge of six 
duly organised parishes, for the space of one year. 
The reason of this rule is plain. Without it, any 
ambitious presbyter who could gather one or two 
supporters, might have " organised a diocese" in 
some new state, and presented himself for conse- 
cration as its elected bishop. But the necessity of 
such a rule is a striking instance of the evil which 
resulted from this new principle of self-creation ; by 

1 This necessity has since been happily removed, as will ap- 
pear hereafter. 

2 By the second canon of the Church. 



DIOCESE AND BISHOP. 247 

which, like some mere commercial association aim- 
ing at pecuniary profits, the members of the Church 
formed themselves at will into a body corporate, to 
act together by mutual agreement, without their ap- 
pointed head. 

The practice of earlier times, indeed, and the 
necessities of this, would have allowed, if need be, 
any scattered presbyters to act, singly, or together, on 
their own commission, waiting for, and expecting the 
time, when the rulers of the Church should crown 
their labours, by sending forth one chief witness 
more, to gather them together into a visible unity. 
But this would have been wholly a different arrange- 
ment from that, which directed the laity or clergy to 
constitute themselves an organised diocese, though 
they remained for years without a bishop. 

The evils of this state of things are well expressed 
by a living bishop of America r 1 — " If due perpetu- 
ation of the Church, and chief authority, and the 
protection of God's promise, appertain to bishops as 
successors to the apostles of the Lord, how can we 
encourage, so far as we have rightful influence, the 
extension or even the existence of the Church with- 
out a bishop ? If it be ' evident,' as we declare, 2 
* to all men diligently reading holy scripture and an- 
cient authors, that from the apostles' time there have 

1 George Washington Doane, D.D., bishop of the diocese 
of New Jersey, in a sermon preached at Philadelphia, Sep- 
tember 25, 1833. 

2 Preface to the ordinal. 



248 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church, 
bishops, priests, and deacons,' by what warrant can 
we withhold from any portion of the Saviour's family 
the chiefest of the three ? If it be sound and true in 
practice, as it is certainly of primitive authority, * not 
to do any thing without the bishop/ 1 upon what prin- 
ciple is it that we permit the organisation of dioceses, 
yet, until they have a certain number of duly organ- 
ised parishes and duly settled presbyters, compel 
them to remain without a bishop ?" 

One evident effect of this rule was, to afford 
temptations to all sorts of subterfuges through which 
a province could be made to seem possessed of the 
number of parishes and pastors to which was an- 
nexed the exercise of this right. Another and a 
greater evil belonging to this rule was the weakness 
with which it infected all the aggressive acts of the 
Church upon those whom she should conquer to save. 
In the outskirts and border-land of Christendom the 
spiritual struggle is always most severe. There, 
where the old standard can be carried forward only 
by hard fighting, is the greatest need of those true 
champions who are ready to spend their breath and 
shed their blood in the holy cause. There is ever 
the greatest need of disciplined ranks, of complete- 
ness of authority, of ready obedience, of concen- 
tred command, of our Master's promised presence ; 
there, more than anywhere beside, must the suc- 
cessors of the twelve be found readv to do con- 
1 See the Epistles of Ignatius, the disciple of St. John. 



CONVENTION. 



249 



stantly apostles' works. Nothing, therefore, could 
be more disheartening than the lacking this secret 
of strength exactly where that strength was most re- 
quired. 

Again, another evil resulted from this rule, It 
fostered the very spirit of self-will and independence 
from which it sprang; for, by allowing the organi- 
sation of a diocese without a bishop, it led practi- 
cally to the undervaluing of the office of a bishop, to 
its being esteemed an ornamental part of the Church 
machinery, and not as the power of government and 
the instrument of a visible unity. The " convention," 
and not the episcopate, became really the ruling 
power. That is, while called Episcopal, the Church 
was, in fact, in great measure Presbyterian. 

There was much in the constitution of the dio- 
cesan " convention" to increase this evil. It was a 
synod, of which laymen, who were not even commu- 
nicants, formed the greater part. 1 Each parish sent 
one, two, or three delegates to this convention, and 
they passed canons, administered the discipline of the 
diocese, decided on the alteration of creeds, litur- 
gies, and articles, elected a bishop, and even held 
that when appointed he would be " amenable to" them. 2 
Of a like character was the constitution of the stand- 
ing committee, which commonly consisted of laymen 

1 There is nothing to prevent even an unbaptised man re- 
presenting the Church in convention, and it is too certain that 
such men have actually been found amongst the delegates. 

2 Canons of the Church in Virginia. 



250 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

and clergy, in equal numbers. 1 This, which was 
elected by the diocesan convention, was, till the next 
assembled, the governing body of the diocese. 

A few extracts from the minutes of one of the 
Virginian conventions will shew the working of this 
system in detail. They are taken from the journal 
of May 1790, 2 four months before the consecration 
of the first bishop of that diocese. 

On Wednesday, May 5th, a sufficient number 
of clergymen and lay deputies to form a convention 
having met according to appointment, the Rev. T. 
Madison, D.D., was unanimously elected president. 
After this they elected a secretary and a committee 
to examine into the certificates of the appointments 
of sitting members, and adjourned till two p.m., to 
receive the report of this committee. This having 
been received, and the list of actual members of con- 
vention ascertained, they then adjourned until the 
morrow. 

On Thursday, May 6th, the proceedings opened 
with prayers and a sermon, after which, amongst 
other things, it was " resolved, that this convention 
will to-morrow resolve itself into a committee of 
the whole convention, on the state of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church ; that this convention will, to-mor- 

1 "In Pennsylvania it consists of five clergymen and as many 
laymen. In Ohio three of each order are elected ; in Tennessee 
two of each," — CaswalTs American Church, p. 74. 

2 Journals of Virginian Conventions. Appendix to Dr. 
Hawks's Memorials, p. 31, &c. 



VIRGINIAN CONVENTION. 251 

row, proceed to the nomination of a bishop of the 
Episcopal Church in Virginia ; that a committee be 
appointed to amend the canons which respect the 
trial of offending clergymen." This committee was 
composed of five laymen and five clergymen. 

On the following day the convention proceeded 
by ballot to the nomination of a bishop, when it was 
found that the numbers given were — for the Rev, 
James Madison, 46 ; for the Rev. Samuel Shield, 9 
— a majority, therefore, of the whole convention was 
in favour of Dr. Madison, and it was accordingly re- 
solved that he should be nominated for consecration 
as their bishop. 

The convention then appointed five clergymen 
to " visit'' the different districts of the province ; 
and agreed to recommend any bishop to whom Mr. 
Stephen Johnson might apply for ordination, to dis- 
pense in his case with the knowledge of the Greek 
and Latin languages, required by the seventh general 
canon of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. 
After transacting some of the temporal business of 
the diocese, the convention adjourned. At their 
meeting on the following day, which ended the 
synod, besides other business, they received from the 
committee some new canons respecting the trial of 
offending clergymen, which were read and finally 
adopted, and agreed to a general " ordinance for 
regulating the appointment of vestries and trustees, 
and for other purposes." Some extracts from these 
" canons" and this " ordinance" will shew the nature 



252 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the questions decided by this convention, in which 
there were twenty-seven clergymen to thirty-three 
lay deputies. " Be it ordained." says the ordinance, 
" that future conventions shall consist of two depu- 
ties from each parish, of whom the minister shall be 
one, if there be a minister, the other a layman, to be 
annually chosen by the vestry, who shall also choose 
another, where there is no minister in the parish," — 
a minister being no more essential to a parish than a 
bishop to a diocese. 

" Convention shall regulate all the religious 
concerns of the Church, its doctrines, discipline, 
and w t orship, and institute such rules and regulations 
as they may judge necessary for the good govern- 
ment thereof, and the same revoke and alter at their 
pleasure." 

To the same purport speak the canons. "All 
questions, whether they relate to the order, govern- 
ment, discipline, doctrine, or worship of this Church, 
shall be determined by a majority of votes." " The 
clergy of several neighbouring parishes shall assem- 
ble in presbytery annually, at some convenient place 
in the district. One in each district shall be ap- 
pointed by the convention to preside at their meet- 
ings, with the title of visitor ; who shall annually visit 
each parish in his district — shall attend to and in- 
spect the morals and conduct of the clergy — shall 
admonish and reprove privately those clergymen who 
are negligent or act in an unbecoming manner, and 
shall report yearly to the bishop, if there be one, 



LAY MEMBERS OF CONVENTION. 253 

or if there be no bishop, to the next convention, the 
state of each parish in his district.*' Other canons 
carried these principles still further. " Bishops," says 
canon 25, " shall be amenable to the convention, who 
shall be a court to try them, from which there shall 
be no appeal;" and (canon 27) "on a bishop's being 
convicted of offences, he shall be reproved, suspen- 
ded, or dismissed, at the discretion of the court." 

Of the same character are some of the rules for 
the lower orders in the ministry. "No minister," 
says the 13th, " shall hereafter be received into any 
parish within this commonwealth till he shall have 
entered into a contract in writing ... by which it shall 
be stipulated . . . that he holds the appointment subject 
to removal upon the determinations of the conven- 
tion of this state." And the 28th canon, one of those 
adopted at this time, constitutes the chairman and 
three-fourths of the standing committee (a lay body) 
a court to try all clergymen accused of offences, giv- 
ing them the power of " passing such a sentence as 
the majority shall think deserved, which shall be 
either reproof, dismission, or degradation." The ten- 
dency of such a set of rules is plain. They do not 
merely secure to the laity that share of power which, 
in the best times, belonged to them, but they give 
to the convention the whole government ; and confer 
upon a synod of deputies, clerical and lay, the office 
of degrading presbyters and bishops — of taking, that 
is, from them, what it had no authority to give or to 
remove. 



254 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

In the organisation of the general convention the 
same evils may be found. Some, indeed, there were, 
and amongst them Bishop Seabury, who contended 
that laymen should not sit at all in synods of the 
Church. But for this there seems to be undoubted 
warrant. From the intimations of the Acts of the 
Apostles, we can hardly doubt that, in some way or 
other, the laity took part in the discussions of the 
primitive Church. It is as plain that they made up 
the body in which dwelt the Holy Ghost, as that 
the power of discipline and rule was vested in the 
hands of the apostles. The general history of the 
Church in the succeeding age suggests, that then 
also the believing people ratified with their expressed 
consent the decisions of the earliest synods. That 
such was the custom in our own land is clear from 
plain historical records. It is proved by the earliest 
remains of our annals, that the bishops presided over 
ecclesiastical councils in England, and, with a vast 
attendance of the people, settled all matters of reli- 
gion against heresies. 

After the subjugation of this island by the Sax- 
ons, their kings, with the chiefs and bishops, held 
councils, in which they decided all which concerned 
the safety of the Church and kingdom ; and to main- 
tain their peace and discipline, enacted laws, with 
the sanction both of the laity and prelates. Further, 
if at any time canons were passed in a merely eccle- 
siastical synod, they were not binding on the body 
of the clergy until they had received the sanction of 



ANGLO-SAXON SYNODS. 255 

the monarch, as the representative of the laity ; for 
no decrees of ecclesiastical councils possessed the 
character of public enactments until thus sanctioned 
by the king's authority. 1 

Both in Scotland and England, in the ninth, 
tenth, and eleventh centuries, councils were held for 
settling both civil and ecclesiastical affairs, in which 
it is plain, from their signatures, that kings and 
great men of the laity sat with and even outweighed 
the bishops. 2 

On this point our ancient records cannot be mis- 
taken. " Let the bishop and the senator," say the 
laws of Edgar (about A.i). 950), " be present at the 
provincial synod, and afterwards let them teach di- 
vine and human laws." 3 

" King Eadmund," says the code of Anglo-Saxon 
laws, " assembled a great synod at London-byrig, 
as well of ecclesiastical as secular degree, during 
the holy Easter-tide. There was Odda, archbishop, 
and Wolfstan, archbishop, and many other bishops, 
deeply thinking of their souls' condition and of those 
who w T ere subject to them." 4 

" In the reign of the most bountiful Wihtred, 
king of the Kentish men, there was assembled a 
convention of the great men in council : there was 
Birhtwald, archbishop of Britain, and the forenamed 

1 Wilkins, Concilia, vol. vi. p. viii. 

2 Ibid. p. xxvii. 

3 Wilkins, Leges Anglo- Saxonicse, pp. 78, 79. 

4 AngL-Sax. Laws, p. 92. 



256 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

king ; and the ecclesiastics of the province of every 
degree spoke in union with the subject people." 1 

So speak the laws of King Alfred. " After this 
it happened that many nations received the faith 
of Christ, 2 and that many synods were assembled 
throughout all the earth ; and also among the English 
race after they had received the faith of Christ, of 
holy bishops, and also of other exalted witan." And 
even in later times, when the clergy and laity no 
longer sat together, the decisions of the synod were 
ratified by the assent of the assembled laity. 

It is not, therefore, to the presence or votes of 
the laity in the American convention that objection 
can be made. In this respect the constitution of the 
synod did but follow primitive examples. But there 
were other points for which no such warrant can be 
found. The episcopal character was not distinctly 
marked in its organisation. The veto of the bishops 
is as essential to the completeness of the system as 
the possession of their due share of power by the 
believing laity : and this w T as withheld from the 
bishops in America ; the agreement of four-fifths 
of the lower house forced upon them any measures 
approved by the majority. 

If episcopacy be indeed of Christ's appoint- 
ment, such infractions on its principles must have 
weakened this infant Church ; and that it did so 
there is ample proof. To these various errors ad- 

1 Angl.-Sax. Laws, p. 14: a.d. 695. 3 

2 About 880 : p. 23. 



TRUE ORGANISATION DIFFICULT. 257 

mitted into its constitution we may doubtless trace 
much of the slow and feeble progress of the body. 
Conventions never, even in America, have com- 
manded the respect which has always waited on the 
personal rule of a holy and devoted bishop. Hence 
sprung " angry contentions" in diocesan meetings, 
in which " both sides charged their adversaries with 
unholy motives, and disingenuous, unchristian con- 
duct." 1 To such a pitch did these conflicts some- 
times rise, that we find them preventing the pos- 
sibility of the election of a bishop from the fierce 
opposition of contending factions. From this course, 
also, there was diffused on all sides amongst Church- 
men a low estimate of God's gifts, and of the powers 
of His spiritual kingdom. Hence sprung such pro- 
positions as, " that the canons should be so modified 
as to give rectors and vestries the power of admit- 
ting to the pulpits of the churches clergymen of 
other denominations;" 2 hence wanton alterations in 
the creeds and liturgy ; hence a feeble and faltering 
tone, which soon infected thought and action, first 
amongst the clergy, and then amongst the laity, and 
helped on the impression, at one time " common in 
the south, that the Church was cold and lifeless, and 
indifferent to the religion of the heart." 3 

But even as we remark these errors in the early 
organisation of this now independent body, we must 
bear in mind to whom belongs the real fault implied 

1 Dr, Hawks's Maryland, p. 389. 2 Ibid. p. 391. 

3 Ibid. p. 376. 

z 2 



258 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

in their adoption. It was the Church and nation of 
England which had accustomed these our western 
sons to reverse the ancient rule, and " do every 
thing in the Church without the bishop." It was 
our past neglect which left them now to seek their 
principles, and at the same time to set up the very- 
framework of their body spiritual. 

Nor should their peculiar difficulties be over- 
looked. The American revolution not only shook 
the Church to its base, but left the minds of the 
people disinclined to episcopacy, merely because it 
was the form of English religion. Even Churchmen 
were infected with this feeling. They had known 
nothing of bishops except the name ; and they had 
always associated their office with the customs and 
usages of the mother-country. Episcopacy was 
commonly supposed to be of necessity allied to 
monarchy ; and hence in republican America the 
whole tide of men's strongest passions set full against 
it. Here, then, was a great temptation to the framers 
of the new ecclesiastical constitution, to mingle, as 
far as possible, the ruling principle of self-govern- 
ment with the fabric of the episcopal communion. 
They needed, undoubtedly, to be reminded, that 
" the rights of the Christian Church arise, not from 
nature or compact, but from the institution of Christ ; 
and that we ought not to alter them, but to receive 
and maintain them as the holy apostles left them. 
The government, sacraments, faith, and doctrine of 
the Church are fixed and settled. We have a right 



GROWTH OF HIGHER PRINCIPLES. 259 

to examine what they are, but we must take them 
as they are." 1 They were besides almost forced 
to give their laymen too large a share of spiritual 
government, for they had no bishops to rule over 
them. 

While, therefore, we regret the compromise, and 
see too clearly the evils to which it has given birth, 
we must rejoice that still more of ancient truth was 
not lost in those perilous times ; and we hail with 
peculiar pleasure many after-modifications of inju- 
rious practices, and many gradual returns to higher 
and more primitive principles. The Churchmen of 
America had amongst them the true principle of 
life, and the true, law for its development ; and 
year by year they have cast off some cause of 
weakness, and, through God's good guidance, ma- 
tured and perfected the mighty work to which His 
grace has called them. 

1 Letter of Bishop Seabury to Dr. White. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FROM 1801 TO 1811, 12. 

Death and character of Bishop Seabury — Bishop "White — Bishop Pro- 
voost — His character — Resigns the episcopal jurisdiction — No- 
mination and consecration of Bishop Moore — His character — Im- 
provement of the state of the Church — Maryland — Bishop Claggett 

— Party spirit — Bishop Claggett applies for a suffragan — Division 
of convention in 1812 — Method of electing a bishop — The laity 
negative the nomination of the clergy — Convention of 1813 — No 
attempt at an election made — Dr. Kemp elected suffragan in 1814 

— Consequent party feuds — Bishop Claggett's death — Dr. Kemp 
succeeds — His death — Renewed contests as to the Episcopate — 
Bishop Stone elected — Troubles on his death — The see vacant — 
State of Delaware — No bishop — Application to Maryland— Refused 

— Decay of the Church there — And in Virginia — Issue of the long 
struggle with the Anabaptists and others — The glebes confiscated 

— Prostration of the Church. 

At the opening of the new century seven bishops 
presided in America over their several sees. Of 
these, three were of European and four of American 
consecration. The first of the four fathers of the 
western episcopate had been already, as we have 
seen, gathered to his rest. Bishop Seabury died in 
1796, His death was a heavy loss to his infant 
communion ; yet he had lived long enough to leave a 



BISHOP SEABURY. 261 

marked impress of his character upon its institutions. 
His influence was most important whilst the founda- 
tions of the ecclesiastical fabric were being laid. For 
he was a clear-sighted man, of a bold spirit, and 
better acquainted than any of his coadjutors with 
those guiding principles which were then especially 
required. His own bias, indeed, was to extremes 
in the very opposite direction from that to which 
their inclination led them. Trained amidst the New 
England sects, he had early learned to value the dis- 
tinctive features of his own communion ; and receiv- 
ing consecration from the Scotch bishops, the affec- 
tions of his heart opened freely towards them, and 
drew the whole bent of his mind towards their forms 
and practices. Had it been left to him alone to form 
the temper and mould the institutions of the western 
Church, there would have been little hope of its ever 
embracing the whole of the jealous population of 
that wide republic. But his views were a whole- 
some check upon those with whom he had to act. Of 
these, Bishop Madison had been bred a lawyer in the 
worst days of Virginian laxity. He was an elegant 
scholar, a good president of a college, and a mild and 
courteous gentleman ; but he had none of the Chris- 
tian learning and little of the untiring energy in action 
which his difficult position rendered needful. Bishop 
White, mild, meek, and conciliatory, inclined always 
to those councils which bore most faintly the stamp 
of his own communion, and fulfilling, through these 
qualities, a most important part in the common work, 



262 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

was indisposed by character and temper from taking 
resolutely the position which the times required. 
From that which he was sure was right, nothing in- 
deed could move him ; but he was naturally over- 
tolerant of all opinions. 

These very qualities made him a most useful co- 
adjutor to the Bishop of Connecticut. For, as it was 
his great endeavour to secure unanimity of action, 
he was ready to take part in many things to which 
he was himself indifferent, when he saw his brother's 
earnestness concerning them. The same easy tem- 
per as to things he judged indifferent, which would 
have led him, for the sake of peace, to concede to 
the most opposite objections what ought not to be 
yielded, now made him take the stricter side in mat- 
ters which he saw would not be given up by Bishop 
Seabury. On this principle he voted for reinsert- 
ing in the liturgy the Athanasian creed, whilst he 
scrupled not to say that he would never use it ; and 
agreed to place in the Communion-office the prayers 
of invocation and oblation, though he himself had 
never regretted their omission. His temper in these 
things was of the more importance from the peculiar 
character of Bishop Provoost. He was not a man to 
whom the destinies of an infant Church could with 
safety be committed. The whole tone of his theolo- 
gical views was cold and harsh : and in Church-prin- 
ciples he was remarkably deficient. Before the re- 
volutionary war he was assistant-minister of Trinity 
Church, New York, but had retired in 1770 from 



BISHOP PROVOOST. 263 

the work, and lived for fourteen years on a small 
farm in Duchess county. 1 To this step he was led 
in part by his violent political feelings, which made 
him unwilling to hold any preferment under British 
influence, and in part by the extreme unpopularity 
of his ministry. It was urged commonly against him 
that he brought forward with but little prominence 
those peculiar features of the Christian dispensation 
which are usually distinguished as the doctrines of 
grace. There seems to have been too much foun- 
dation for the charge. The language of his own 
defence is by no means satisfactory. He was ac- 
cused, he says, of endeavouring to sap the founda- 
tions of Christianity, because he made a point of 
preaching the doctrines of morality, guarding his flock 
at the same time against "placing such an unbounded 
reliance on the merits of Christ as to think their own 
endeavours quite unnecessary, and not in the least 
available to salvation." This language savours of a 
most dangerous school, and implies no small indis- 
tinctness as to Christian truth. Morality, indeed, in its 
• highest sense, the Christian teacher must always en- 
force, and he must lead men to be most strenuous in 
"their own endeavours" after salvation, " working" it 
" out with fear and trembling;" but not as if (which 
this mode of speech implies) there were some opposi- 
tion between the fullest statement of Christian doc- 
trines and the enforcement of morality ; or between 

1 Life of Bishop Hobart by M'Vickar, p. 296. 



264 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

labouring heartily themselves, and " placing an un- 
bounded reliance on the merits of Christ/' 

He was elected for consecration as the first bi- 
shop of New York, chiefly, as it seems, because his 
known democratic opinions were likely to make it an 
unsuspected and even popular choice. But zealous 
Christian men in different parts viewed the appoint- 
ment with unfeigned sorrow, fearing that he was 
inclined to opinions of little less than a Socinian 
character. His conduct during his episcopate did 
not materially lessen these impressions to his disad- 
vantage. It could not be denied that he was, to a 
great extent, cold and indistinct in doctrine, distant 
and reserved in personal bearing, and indolent and 
inactive in his work. Against Bishop Seabury, 
whose opinions and character were in every respect 
most unlike his own, he was strongly prejudiced, and 
long denied the validity of his consecration, even 
though in this he stood almost alone amongst his own 
clergy, and when the neighbouring states had re- 
ceived as pastors those whom his eastern brother had 
ordained. Most happily for the infant Church, the 
mild urbanity of Bishop White checked this discord, 
and prevented the threatened separation ; and from 
this time though there was little sympathy of feel- 
ing, yet they acted in concert till the death of Bishop 
Seabury in 1 786. Bishop Provoost's own public life 
lasted little longer. In September 1800 he resigned 
the incumbency of Trinity church ; and in the follow- 
ing year he called together the diocesan convention, 



CHARACTER OF BISHOP PROVOOST. 265 

and resigned to it his episcopal jurisdiction. Diffe- 
rent causes led him to this step. He had little sense 
of the spiritual greatness of his charge ; no burning 
ardour in fulfilling it ; its duties pressed heavily upon 
an inactive temperament ; he had long withdrawn 
himself from all but those which he could not es- 
cape; and the loss of his wife in 1799, and his son in 
1800, induced him at once to retire from the dis- 
charge of an office which he felt to be an irksome 
burden rather than a blessing. 

His resignation led to anxious debates in the gene- 
ral convention, and the house of bishops refused to 
allow what they thought might be an unseemly and 
inconvenient precedent. They acted, however, so far 
upon it, that they agreed to consecrate Dr. Benjamin 
Moore as his assistant now, and his successor at his 
death. Much good resulted from this choice. Bishop 
Moore was a man of a tender gentleness of character ; 
and the vigour and determination of his successor 
would probably have suited the temper of events less 
than his winning mildness. Under the rule of his 
predecessor all had been dormant, if not apathetic. 
Of this lethargic character had been his temper who 
should have been the spring of life and energy in 
others. Bare toleration seemed to Bishop Provoost 
all that could be hoped for by a body branded with 
the stigma of British descent. They who invite sus- 
picion and contempt are seldom slow in meeting with 
them. So it was now : common opinion looked 
suspiciously upon the Church, and the sense of this 



266 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

oppressed its members. Neither the clergy nor the 
laity ever rose under him to any sense of the import- 
ance of their position. The apostolic gentleness of 
Bishop Moore brooded with a loving energy over 
the scattered and disheartened flock, and prepared 
the way for a better state of things. During the ten 
years of his episcopate, though there was little evi- 
dent increase, there was a gradual upgrowth of sounder 
principles within his diocese. 

On no other side was there the same amount of 
promise. Maryland 1 was at this time, and until 1816, 
under the charge of Bishop Claggett, a mild and 
courteous ruler, and a zealous Christian minister ; 
but wanting somewhat of that habitual firmness which 
was needful to give tone to his episcopate. His flock, 
as we have seen, 2 was in a languishing condition ; it 
was, moreover, sorely harassed by internal disputes ; 
parties ran high within it, and it seemed as if the 
unity of the spirit had departed from the land. Bishop 
Claggett could scarcely repress the feuds which were 
rife among his clergy ; and as soon as opportunity 
allowed, they broke out into visible dissensions. 

The opportunity too soon occurred. For twenty 
years Bishop Claggett had been overburdened by 
the united weight of those cares which belong to a 
laborious parish priest and those which press upon 
a faithful bishop. Such an incongruous union, which 
breaks down prematurely the best men, is almost 

1 From Dr. Hawks's Memorials, Maryland, Preface. 

2 P. 210. 



BISHOP CLAGGETT. 267 

universal in America. While the fear of exalting the 
class of prelates has led some conventions (that, for 
instance, of Virginia) to make the retention of a 
parish-cure imperative upon a bishop, the need of 
securing a certain income to support the episcopate 
has made this the general custom. " Episcopal funds/' 
to meet this want, have, indeed, often been pro- 
posed ; but, except in the diocese of New York, they 
have never met with full success ; and thus they on 
whom is laid the charge of government and the daily 
11 care of all the churches,'' are obliged, at the same 
time, to serve the most laborious cures in order to 
secure themselves a necessary income. 

Worn out by such labours, yet unwilling wholly 
to desert his post, Bishop Claggett, after twenty years 
of service^ applied, in 1812, for a suffragan to share 
his toils. The right of electing a bishop is lodged 
by the constitution of the American Church in the 
diocesan convention ; their choice is submitted to the 
general convention, if it be the year of its session, 
and if approved by it, is acted on by the bishops. 
In the recesses of the general convention, a majority 
of the " standing committees" of all the dioceses 
in union must approve of the choice before the bi- 
shops consecrate. By the rule of election in the 
state of Maryland, a vote by ballot of two- thirds of 
the clergy in session nominates the clergyman to fill 
the vacant see : this nomination then becomes the 
subject of a ballot among the lay deputies ; and if 
two-thirds of them approve of it, the bishop-elect is 



268 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

nominated to the president of the house of bishops, 
who collects the opinions either of that body or of 
the standing committees of the union. 

When Bishop Claggett's message reached the dio- 
cesan convention, they proceeded to a ballot, and Dr. 
Kemp was nominated for the office. He was a native 
of Scotland, born of pious parents attached to the Pres- 
byterian kirk. What first changed his religious views 
is now entirely unknown. In his youth the Epis- 
copal communion was oppressed in Scotland by the 
severest penal laws ; and when he was first permitted 
to attend its services, he was wont to be led blindfold 
to the house of prayer, lest he should afterwards prove 
a traitor, and expose his fellow-worshippers to the 
severe enactments of a persecuting code. Probably 
this attachment to the Church led to his emigration 
to America. Here he lived for some years as private 
tutor in a respectable family of Maryland ; in 1789 
he was ordained by Bishop White both deacon and 
priest ; and having been the year before chosen to 
the associate rectorship of St. Paul's, Baltimore, was 
now, by a majority of clerical suffrages, nominated 
as assistant bishop to Dr. Claggett. This nomina- 
tion, however, was negatived by the lay delegates, 
and the convention adjourned before any choice 
was made. At the convention of the following year 
the equal strength of the two parties prevented all 
attempts to make a nomination ; and when, in 1814, 
Dr. Kemp's election was carried by a constitutional 
majority, the defeated party charged his friends with 



BISHOP KEMP. 269 

the grossest fraud, and stirred up a bitter and lasting 
opposition to the elected suffragan. He, however, 
made good his ground. The house of bishops re- 
jected a protest laid before them by his enemies ; and 
in the eastern coast of the diocese of Maryland, which 
was specially committed to him, his temper and his 
zeal soon gained him the esteem of all good men. 

Yet the embers of ill-will which had been stirred 
up in this contest broke out afresh into a flame at 
every opportunity. A party in the Church besought 
Dr. Provoost, the retired bishop of New York, to 
consecrate one of their number in opposition to Bi- 
shop Kemp ; and the strife was not allayed till it 
had led to the suspension of the chief opponent of 
the choice ; and even then it only slept. Bishop 
Kemp, indeed, succeeded without question to the 
see on Dr. Claggett's death ; but when he in turn 
was, in 1827, 1 gathered to his fathers, the strife was 
renewed. In the convention of the following year 
three fruitless attempts to nominate a bishop pro- 
longed the strife ; five such followed in the conven- 
tion of 1829. In 1830, a compromise between the 
hostile parties seated Dr. Stone upon the bishop's 
seat, which for full seven years he occupied with a 
meek quietness which might have stilled the spirit 
of division ; but the meeting of convention shortly 
after his death, soon shewed that it was unallayed. 

1 Bishop Kemp's death was sudden and violent, owing to 
the overturning of the carriage in which he was returning from 
the general convention. 

A A 2 



270 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

The synod was opened with a most touching address, 
prepared for delivery by Bishop Stone ; but now, in 
consequence of his decease, read by another. From 
its words of peace the convention passed to bitterness 
and strife. Each party put its candidate in nomi- 
nation ; and though the two principals agreed in re- 
commending a third party for the office, their ad- 
herents would permit no compromise. After twenty 
fruitless ballotings, a bishop was still unappointed. 
The see was declined by one presbyter of New York 
(Dr. Eastburn), and one missionary bishop (Dr. 
Kemper), and in 1838 was still untenanted. 

In all this narrative we seem scarcely to be 
reading the annals of that Church which glories in 
possessing the apostles' " doctrine and fellowship." 
Rather do we seem engaged with the perverse wrang- 
lings of the adherents of some worldly sect. But it 
is, in fact, a striking comment on that intertwining 
of lower principles with the single thread of apostolic 
order, which weakened at so many points the West- 
ern Church. It was the result of allowing men to 
organise themselves, and so become and remain a 
headless diocese, instead of sending the Church to 
them as the constituted ordinance of God. 

While there was this distempered life in Mary- 
land, in the neighbouring state of Delaware there 
was almost the apathy of death. This was one of 
those American anomalies — a diocese without a bi- 
shop. It seems to have been constituted a diocese 
in 1785 ; but the episcopal chair had never yet been 



CHURCHES IN RUIN. 271 

filled. The cause of this does not appear ; but it 
was probably the want of funds to support the office. 
In 1803, Delaware proposed to the Maryland con- 
vention that the eastern shore of that state should 
with itself constitute a new diocese. The applica- 
tion was declined ; and with it seem to have ended 
all their efforts for this object. Religion was at the 
lowest ebb. Before the Revolution, matters had been 
widely different. Numerous congregations had been 
wont, throughout that district, to worship in goodly 
churches their fathers' God. Of these buildings 
many have perished utterly ; many are still in ruins. 
" The traveller," says Dr. Hawks, 1 " in going down 
the line that separates Delaware from Maryland, 
might at a recent period have seen within a few 
miles of that line the tottering remains of five 
churches, and the spots on w T hich had stood three 
or four others. There are few things more calcu- 
lated to touch the soul of a pious Churchman than 
to journey over those southern states, and to mark 
the crumbling remains of ruined temples that attest 
the piety of our forefathers. More than once have 
we paused in our travel to step aside, and stand 
alone within the roofless and, perchance, shattered 
walls of some house of God that caught our eye and 
lured us from the road. There is a sermon in the 
very stillness of the quiet air around the hallowed 
spot, as one sits down on some half-sunken tomb- 
stone, and, in the calm loveliness of one of those 
1 Memorials of Maryland, p. 354. 



272 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

bright and beautiful days that belong to a southern 
clime, calls up the scene of former times, and fills 
that forsaken church with the worshippers of a 
buried generation." 

The state of things in Delaware was desolate in- 
deed. The whole peninsula on which it stands, — 
which includes the state of Delaware, the east shore 
of Maryland, and two counties of Virginia, — con- 
tained at the time of making this request but nine- 
teen clergymen. In 1827 they had dwindled to fif- 
teen ; and there were still almost forty churches in 
a fit state for worship, surviving the wreck of time 
to testify against a love which had grown cold, and a 
candlestick already well nigh removed from its place. 
It is surely worth notice, that the districts in which 
Church principles had long been lowest were those 
in which piety the soonest flagged. So it was in 
Maryland, and so it was in the neighbouring diocese 
of Virginia. From this state had come the strongest 
opposition to the distinctive features of the Church. 
It was a Virginian deputy who proposed to omit the 
four first petitions of the Litany ; it was Virginia 
which resisted the rubric allowing the clergy to 
expel unfit communicants ; it was Virginia which 
sent as lay deputy to the general convention a priest 
who had abandoned his orders ; Virginia headed the 
opposition to the Athanasian Creed ; directed her 
representative, by an unanimous vote, to express 
" the highest disapprobation" of the proposed allow- 
ance of a negative to the house of bishops ; and de- 



DEVEREUX JARRATT. 273 

clared her bishops " amenable to their conventions ;" 
it was in Virginia that clergymen were found who 
began to substitute extemporaneous prayer for the 
appointed Litany ; 1 it was in Virginia, also, that 
deadness to all spiritual things was the most per- 
ceptible. One name amongst her clergy is still fresh 
in the grateful remembrance of the few surviving 
members of his flock. Devereux Jarratt, ordained 
in London in 1762, returned the same year to Vir- 
ginia ; and till his death, in 1801, never ceased doing 
faithfully the work of an evangelist. Earnest, sim- 
ple, and eminently heavenly-minded, his ministry 
was greatly blessed by God : " his converts were 
exceedingly numerous ; and a few aged disciples 
still living in Virginia acknowledge him as their spi- 
ritual father." 2 But, alas, he seems long to have 
stood literally alone ; " at his first answer no man 
stood with him ; " and the final loss of the glebes 
almost laid the Church low. 

This disastrous conclusion of the long struggle 
between their united enemies and Churchmen took 
place in the year 1804. Its last stages were remark- 
able. In 1799 an act had passed the assembly of 
Virginia, professedly intended " to declare the con- 
struction of the bill of rights and constitution con- 
cerning religion," but really meant to repeal every 
act favourable to the Church which had passed since 
the Revolution. This was followed by another in 

1 Dr. Hawks's Memorials, Virginia, pp. 269, 270. 

2 Henshaw's Life of Bp. Moore, p. 15. 



274 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

January 1802, by which it was declared that the 
title to the property the Church had held before the 
Revolution was vested in the state at large ; and 
that, whenever they were vacant, the glebes should 
be sold for the benefit of the poor of the parish. 
Under this law those acts which always mark con- 
fiscation followed. The glebes were sold at prices 
merely nominal ; and the small sums which did 
accrue from them flowed into various channels of 
private profit. The churchyards, and the churches 
with their furniture, were exempted from the ope- 
rations of this law ; yet they, and even the commu- 
nion-plate, were seized and sold. The fruits of this 
confiscation are still to be found. " Within our own 
time," says Dr. Hawks, " a reckless sensualist has 
administered the morning dram to his guests from 
the silver cup which has often contained the conse- 
crated symbol of his Saviour's blood. In another 
instance the entire set of communion- plate of one of 
the old churches is in the hands of one who belongs 
to the society of Baptists." The Bishop of Virginia, 
when on his visitation, has witnessed the conversion 
of a marble baptismal font into a trough for horses. 1 
The act under which these offences were com- 
mitted did not pass without a struggle. When 
adopted, its constitutional legality was questioned, 
and its enforcement resisted by processes of law. 
The decision of the lower courts was on the side of 
confiscation. This judgment was carried by appeal 

1 Hawks"s Virginia, p. 236. 



CHURCH PROPERTY CONFISCATED. X ( O 

before the highest tribunal of Virginia. This court 
consisted of five judges, of whom four only (one as a 
Churchman deeming himself an interested party) sat 
upon this trial. Of these Judge Pendleton was by 
seniority the president. His judgment, and that of 
two of his assessors, was against the courts below; 
and he was about to reverse the previous sentence, 
and so, in fact, repeal this most injurious law. 
The morning came on which the final sentence was 
to be pronounced, when Judge Pendleton, who was 
already past fourscore, was found dead in his bed 
from a stroke of apoplexy. In his pocket was dis- 
covered the decision which another day would have 
made law, securing to the Church the full posses- 
sion of her glebes ; but it had not been pronounced, 
and so was void of all authority. The case was heard 
again before Judge Pendleton's successor. His judg- 
ment was the other way ; and thus (Judge Fleming 
still refusing to take part) the court was equally 
divided. The decree from below was therefore 
officially confirmed, and its property taken for ever 
from the Church. 

Some good and wise end was doubtless answered 
by this reverse ; but its present effect was most dis- 
astrous. It extinguished wholly the spirit of Church- 
men, and was followed by a complete prostration of 
hope and exertion. How entire this was has been 
already seen. One more instance may be men- 
tioned. 1 In the year 1722, within six counties of 
1 Dr. Hawks's Virginia, p. 267. 



276 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

what is termed the northern neck of Virginia, there 
were more than twelve churches, all supplied with 
the ministrations of the Gospel. Almost a hundred 
years had passed, and instead of any growth through- 
out an extent of country one hundred miles long and 
fifteen broad, every church and chapel had been for- 
saken. The road to the Chesapeak was studded with 
mouldering ruins of what had once been houses of 
the Lord; and if here and there one or two seemed 
at first sight to maintain their fair proportions, a 
closer examination shewed that it w T as only that the 
piety of earlier days had built them of a massive 
strength, 1 which had enabled them thus long to 
resist the injuries of time. 

Such was the deadly trance which had fallen on 
the Church. From such a state Bishop Madison was 
not the man to rouse it. He was an elegant scholar, 
with no great warmth of Christian character, and a 
low estimate of the spiritual power inherent in the 
office which he held. How far he was fit to dis- 
charge its arduous duties in that day of reproach, 
may be gathered from the fact that he obtained the 
eulogies of Thomas Jefferson, the deist in religion, 
and in politics the man who purchased the votes of 
the opponents of the Church 2 by so framing the con- 
stitution of Virginia as to refuse corporate powers 

1 These churches are built of bricks which were brought 
from the mother country. Many such still remain, needing 
little more than a roof to render them fit for immediate use. 

2 Voice from America, p. 30. 



BISHOP MADISON. 277 

to all religious societies, and thus prevent their hold- 
ing property at all. Bishop Madison seems to have 
felt his own unfitness for the post he rilled. At 
first, indeed, he manifested some activity ; but his 
early efforts were not crowned with success, and he 
had not energy enough to persevere without such 
direct and sensible encouragement. In 1805 he ap- 
plied to his diocese for an assistant bishop ; the sub- 
ject was deferred until the convention reassembled 
in the following year. It was never resumed; — for 
the convention never sat again within his lifetime. 
During fifteen years of his episcopate the state of 
things grew more and more disastrous : " he seemed 
to be like a pilot with his ship amongst the breakers, 
who in despair resigns the helm, in expectation that 
his noble barque will soon be stranded as a shattered 
wreck upon the shore." 1 

" It was the dark day of the Church, when all 
slumbered and slept." 2 They ow T ed their awaken- 
ing from this slumber to that office which Virginia 
had so greatly undervalued ; for it may be clearly 
traced, under the blessing of Almighty God, to the 
appointment and devoted labours of another bishop. 

1 Dr. Henshaw's Life of Bp. Moore, p, 112. 

2 Df. Hawks. 



B B 



CHAPTER IX. 

1811, 12. 

Death of Bp. Madison — Renewal of diocesan convention — Election of 
Dr. Bracken to the episcopate — He refuses it — Dr. Moore elected 

— His early life — Ministerial success — He visits the diocese — 
Stirs up the spirit of Churchmen — Revival of the Church — Growth 
of Church principles — Improved canons — Theological seminary 
founded — And poor scholars' fund — Dr. Meade elected suffragan, 
with a restriction— Conduct of the house of bishops — Removal of 
restrictions — Bishop B. Moore of New York applies for an assistant 
bishop — Dr. J. H. Hobart elected — His origin and youth — First 
ministerial charge in Pennsylvania — Removes to New York — His 
studies — Publications — Services in state and general convention 

— Controversy with Dr. Mason — Elected bishop — Opposition — 
Bishop Provoost's claim to the bishopric of New York — Disallowed 
by the convention — Bishop White's treatment of Bishop Hobart — 
And high esteem for him. 

The dark day through which our recent history has 
taken us began at last to break away, and at the 
period we have reached the sky already glowed in 
many different directions. The old generation was 
passing away. The deists who, with Thomas Jeffer- 
son to head them, had long held undisputed sway, 
no longer carried every thing before them. There 
had been a secret upgrowth of a better race, and in 
the Church, as well as elsewhere, men of another 
temper took their places on the stage. Both among 



DEATH OF BISHOP MADISON. 279 

the laity and clergy, the cold and timid councils of the 
former generation were beginning to give way to energy 
and zeal. In Virginia, Bishop Madison expired in 
March 1812 ; and the first sign of vitality within the 
diocese was the meeting of the convention to elect his 
successor. It was now seven years since it had as- 
sembled ; and in a state which of old could number 
its hundred clergy, and which required the attend- 
ance of fifteen to make a quorum, and the presence of 
twenty-five to pass any canon, thirteen clergymen and 
twelve laymen were all who could be brought toge- 
ther. 1 Having voted nine a quorum, they proceeded 
to elect a bishop, and chose Dr. Bracken. When the 
convention met the following year (1813), it was to 
hear that Dr. Bracken had declined their offer. This 
was a disheartening answer. The few who had assem- 
bled did not proceed to make another choice ; but 
feeling strongly their well-nigh hopeless destitution, 
they drew up an address urging on their brethren the 
duty of making fresh exertions in their common 
cause. This " most earnestly entreated them to con- 
sider the necessity of adopting zealous measures for 
the restoration of religion," especially as, " from the 
destitute state of the churches, many piously disposed 
persons who were attached to the doctrine, worship, 
and discipline of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
were deprived of the means of worshipping God ac- 
cording to her venerable forms, to the great unhap- 
piness of themselves, as well as to the great detriment 

1 Journals of Virginian Convention, p. 181. 



280 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the Church at large;" it besought them " to raise 
a fund for the purpose of aiding in the support of 
such clergymen of piety and talents as may be ob- 
tained to perform divine service in such districts in 
the state as may be assigned to them by the conven- 
tion." 

In May 1814 the annual convention re-assem- 
bled ; seven clergymen and seventeen laymen met in 
council, 1 and proceeded to elect a bishop. They 
felt the great importance of the crisis, and looked far 
around them for the qualities they needed. They 
plainly saw that it was not a time when a merely blame- 
less life or classical attainments would be enough for 
him who, amidst their busy and disordered popu- 
lation, was to sit on the apostles' seat. After full 
deliberation, they elected Dr. Richard Moore, rector 
of St. Stephen's church in the city of New York. 
They had been guided to a happy choice. Dr. 
Moore had received a classical education, but at the 
close of the war of independence he entered on the 
medical profession, and followed it for nearly nine 
years. His childhood had been marked by sincere 
and decided piety ; and though this had seemed for 
a while " choked" by the cares of other things, and 
he entered upon life too much like other men, yet 
he was not long suffered to wander, but in early 
manhood was recalled to the service of the Cross. 
For a while he continued in the practice of medicine, 
but his soul now thirsted for the labours and rewards 

1 Vide supra, p. 236. 



EARLY LABOURS OF BISHOP R. MOORE. 281 

of the Christian ministry ; and at the time of the 
Church's most entire prostration, when there was least, 
in possession or in prospect, to gratify ambition, he 
yielded to those guiding impulses, quitted his more 
lucrative profession, and determined to prepare for 
holy orders. In 1787 he was admitted deacon by 
Bishop Provoost, being the first ordained by him, — the 
first, therefore, ever set apart for this high calling in 
New York, — and making then the sixth clergyman in 
that large diocese, which has now for several years 
numbered more than its 200. The blessing of a re- 
ligious youth rested on the new-made deacon ; within 
this same church he had been baptised into the name 
of Jesus Christ, confirmed, in due season, in the 
faith, and first admitted to the holy eucharist. From 
it he went forth to his work in the fulness of the 
blessing of the gospel of peace. His first field of 
labour was on Staten Island, where for one-and- 
twenty years he was rector of St. Andrew's. An 
unusual increase crowned his ministerial labours ; al- 
though he raised before his flock a high standard of 
pastoral piety, yet no fewer than 100 new communi- 
cants were gathered in one year around the altar of 
his church. In 1809 he moved to St. Stephen's, on 
the outskirts of his native city of New York. Here 
all was yet in its infancy. About thirty families at- 
tended, and the communicants numbered not more 
than twenty. For five years he laboured among 
them ; and when called to the Virginian episcopate, 
he left behind him a body of 400 communicants. 
b b 2 



282 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

When the see was first offered to him, he shrunk 
from the charge, and refused to leave New York. 
Many circumstances added weight to that Christian 
diffidence which might well lead any man to shun, 
as far as lawfully he may, the perilous height of the 
episcopate. Moore, though devoted with all the ar- 
dour of feelings more than usually warm to the dis- 
tinctive doctrines of the gospel of God's grace, and 
even labouring from this cause under some reproach 
from men of a colder and more unimpassioned tem- 
per, was yet conscientiously attached to the distinctive 
principles of his own communion. Previous to his 
settling there, the chief families of Richmond had 
formed " a kind of joint spiritual charge, watched over 
with alternate services by an Episcopalian and a Pres- 
byterian." 1 The invitations which he now received 
hinted at the probable expediency of some conces- 
sions to sectarian feelings, and took for granted, from 
his well-known character, that he would be a likely 
man to further their adoption. It was notorious that 
there were points on which his judgment had differed 
widely from that of Bishop Hobart ; that he had en- 
couraged, under due restrictions, social meetings for 
prayer ; that he favoured meetings of the clergy for 
the purpose of devotion ; and that he maintained 
such doctrine as found utterance in the following let- 
ter to his future coadjutor : — " That we are too cold 
is a solemn truth. To remedy this evil is in our 

1 Life of Bishop Moore. 



STATE OF FEELING IN VIRGINIA. 283 

power, provided we will seek the aid of God's Holy 
Spirit in sincere and fervent prayer ; and I am per- 
suaded that if we honestly call upon God to assist 
us with His grace, and honestly preach His own 
word, He will make that word quick and powerful 
to the conversion of those who hear it." * But these 
principles implied no bias to sectarian views ; and so 
his correspondents soon discovered. 

" The state," they tell him, " of the Church in 
Virginia is indeed most deplorable. The desolations 
of many generations are to be repaired — now is the 
trying and critical moment — now is to be decided 
whether God means to keep a remnant of our Church 
alive among us, or to destroy it entirely. The town 
of Richmond contains by far the largest body of Epis- 
copalians in the southern country. If some one of 
suitable talents and real piety does not go there, it 
will either fall into the hands of some miserable 
creature (many of whom have already been fawning 
for it), or, if a clever Presbyterian should offer, 
they will throw away Episcopacy, and fall under 
his banners. And if Episcopacy dies there at the 

heart, of course it dies elsewhere Certain I 

am, that unless w T e have a bishop of real piety, zeal, 
and talents in Richmond, Episcopacy is gone for 
ever." 

The apprehension of these dangers so fully occu- 
pied the minds of these good men as to incline them 

1 Letter to Mr., afterwards Bishop Meade, — Life of Bishop 
Moore, p. 98. The capitals are the bishop's. 



284 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

to attempt to tread the fatal path of compromise and 
false conciliation. " The Church," they say, " in 
Virginia," (for it is always under this delusion that 
this temptation is disguised,) " is in a peculiar situa- 
tion. Its having been once the established Church, 
the prevalence and virulence of other denominations, 
the sequestration of its glebes, the irregularity of the 
lives of its ministers, and various political causes, 
have combined to swell high the tide of public opi- 
nion, and indeed of odium, against her public form 
of service, her surplices, and all the paraphernalia 
of clerical costume Under these circum- 
stances, to hearts thus constructed, it appears to 
me that no man can carry out our forms in all their 

rubrical vigour with any prospect of success 

We want a bishop who will watch over his clergy 
with tears and tenderness ; who will be an example 
as well as teacher to his flock ; who will know no- 
thing amongst us save Jesus Christ and Him cruci- 
fied ; and who, whilst he inculcates a due reverence 
for our venerable forms of doctrine, discipline, and 
worship, as being of apostolic authority, will at the 
same time direct his best endeavours towards the end 
of all religious institutions, namely, the deliverance of 
immortal souls from hell. Such a bishop will have 
our co-operation, our love, and our prayers." 

The temptation w T as here masked in much to 
which the warm heart of Moore was sure readily to 
answer ; but it was put aside without hesitation. 

" The prejudices," he tells his correspondent, 



hobart's character OF MOORE. 285 

" which are entertained by many of the Virginians 
against the services of the Church and the appropri- 
ate costume of the clergy, afford matter of consider- 
able surprise to a person bred in this part of the union. 

Educated in the bosom of the Episcopal 

Church, I have always been taught to entertain the 

most profound respect for all her services 

Let the ministers of the Church tread in the steps 
of their divine Master ; let them visit the sick and 
bind up the broken-hearted; let the poor of Christ's 
flock be the objects of their care ; and I will venture 
to predict that the mountains of opposition will, in a 
little time, become plain ; the Prayer-book will be 
venerated, our ceremonies approved, the cause of the 
Church will be promoted, and penitent sinners will 
seek for an asylum in our bosom." 

To these principles he adhered throughout the 
correspondence, steadily maintaining, at the same 
time, his first position, that he would not come " on 
trial;" but if elected rector of Richmond, he would 
then, with the approbation of the bishop of New 
York, accept the offered charge. 

An application to Bishop Hobart as to the cha- 
racter of Moore drew forth the assurance, that from 
" the confidence felt in his fidelity to his principles, 
and in his prudent and zealous efforts to advance the 
interests of the Church, he would remove to Virginia 
with the regret of him whose diocese he quitted, and 
with the good wishes and prayers of his brethren 
generally." 



286 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

The Virginians at length assented to his terms ; 
and his bishop judging that he ought not to refuse 
what was pressed on him with such urgency, he was 
chosen rector of the Monumental Church in Rich- 
mond ; and (which had never befallen a clergyman 
residing in another diocese) was, directly after, 
elected by convention to the vacant see. 

On the 18th of May, 1814, he was consecrated to 
the office of a bishop in St. James's Church, Phila- 
delphia. Bishop Hobart, in the consecration ser- 
mon, ventured to predict that " the night of adversity 
had passed, and that a long and splendid day was now 
dawning on the Church in Virginia/' And a little 
farther on he adds, addressing publicly the newly 
elected bishop, ' ; How fervent will be our thanks to 
God who hath made you the instrument of this great 
good !" 

Much was expected from his labours, and the 
expectation was not disappointed. The bishop set 
to work at once in the visitation of his diocese ; and 
wherever he went, his fervent spirit awoke the slum- 
bering energies of those to whom he came. He re- 
turned to report to the convention of 1815 the rising 
promise of the Church. Some of its first fruits might 
be seen in the increased attendance at this synod 
of the diocese, at which the number present exactly 
doubled that of the preceding year. He encouraged 
them to seek and look for great results : he told them 
of the earnest desire which he had found in many 
districts to repair the waste places of their fathers' 



EPISCOPATE OF MOORE. 287 

Church ; of parishes which had seemed wholly ex- 
tinct suddenly aroused to life and vigour ; of others 
where the whole congregation had burst into tears as 
he spake to them of the ancient glory and present 
desolation of their Church. 

The bishop did not raise his voice in vain. The 
laity were manifestly roused. From parish after 
parish he received earnest applications for a resident 
minister. In the succeeding year ten new churches 
were reported as in progress of erection, and eight 
formerly dismantled as now under repair. His own 
labours were unabated. He traversed the whole 
diocese repeatedly ; crossing the mountains of the 
Blue Ridge, and even advancing to aid the destitute 
state of North Carolina. His tone of preaching was 
earnest, affectionate, and simple. It raised the Cross 
of Christ and His salvation before the eyes of all ; 
and God gave to him the hearts of men. His zeal 
was contagious ; and zealous pastors of the flock 
quickly gathered round him. 

The younger clergy undertook the work of mis- 
sionaries in the widely scattered field, and collected 
new congregations throughout all the province, whilst 
he had the joy of sending many fresh labourers into his 
Master's vineyard. Many were the dry and withered 
hearts which were thus awoke to Christian life and 
gladness. This was the especial work of Bishop 
Moore, and a blessed work it was. But there still 
was little done to impress on their disjointed body 
the sense of its unity, to gather up its scattered 



288 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

parts into a living and self-conscious whole. Here 
and there, indeed, there were signs of returning life. 
There were faint reachings forth after discipline and 
order ; some irregularities were laid aside. A few 
of the clergy, in the vain expectation of removing 
prejudice, had begun to substitute, in part, unau- 
thorised devotions for the service of the liturgy. 
Against this the bishop raised his voice in timely 
warning, and led his convention strongly to condemn 
the practice. 1 Other tokens of improvement may be 
found. In the year 1815, the offensive canon which 
declared a bishop amenable to his convention had 
been rescinded, while new rules committed the trial 
of a bishop to his brethren in the sacred college, and 
specially provided, that "none but a bishop shall 
pronounce sentence of deposition or degradation 
from the ministry on any bishop, presbyter, or dea- 
con." 2 

The time had been when, from a misplaced jea- 
lousy, Virginia had declared that every bishop should 
continue to discharge the duties of a parish priest; 
but now, not only was this rule withdrawn, but it 
was proposed to found a fund for the episcopate, 
that no bishop might be kept by ministerial duties 
from his higher charge. 

Another mark of life may be discovered in the 
new provision made for the education of the clergy. 
Two plans promoted this important end ; one, the 

1 Journals of Virginia Convention. 

2 Acts of Convention in Virginia, 1815. 



CLERICAL EDUCATION. 289 

foundation of a theological seminary, which has 
proved of the greatest value both in supplying can- 
didates for the ministry, and also in raising the tone 
of clerical character ; the other, the formation of a 
fund (in 1818) for the education of young men of 
piety, who were desirous of entering into holy orders. 
Such an institution was greatly needed in America, 
where there are few endowments left by the piety of 
earlier days. No discredit is attached to the stu- 
dent who is thus supported ; though he who is main- 
tained by living benefactors cannot know the inde- 
pendence of the scholar of an English university. 
Yet this institution has proved most important ; it 
has opened a way to the ministry to those whose 
hearts longed for its sacred work, but whose narrow 
means would have made due preparation for its 
duties unattainable by them. 1 Nearly one- tenth of 
the clergy had, in 1836, in w r hole or in part, been 
assisted by this society : one-sixth of the present 
clergy of Ohio, one-eighth of those of Pennsylvania, 
one-fifth of those of Maryland, and a large propor- 
tion of those in Virginia, had derived aid from its 
funds, while it was still affording assistance to about 
one-seventh of all the students in the several theo- 
logical schools of the Church in the United States. 
Many of the leading clergy in the west have owed 
their early training to this source. 

All these were movements in the right direction. 

1 Dr. Hawks (1836), note to Memorials, Virginia, p. 261. 
c c 



290 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

But much yet remained to be corrected. There 
still appear on the journals of convention notices 
which startle an English eye. Such are, the " grate- 
ful acceptance of Presbyterian and Baptist churches 
for divine service during the session;*' 1 the record 
of " churches nearly completed, but not exclusively 
episcopal ;" 2 and the return of " forty commu- 
nicants, only fifteen of whom may be considered 
members of the episcopal Church," whilst the at- 
tendance of members of " other denominations" is 
spoken of as " gladly witnessed, and affectionately 
encouraged." 3 

But perhaps the least favourable feature of the 
whole is the result of various contributions attempted 
at this time for the promotion of the common pur- 
poses of Churchmen. It is not that they were poor ; 
for never was the Church of Christ so full of strength 
as when its poverty was deepest ; never was it so 
truly rich as before it had gathered in the treasures 
of the earth. Such entries, therefore, as an extra 
vote of a few dollars for the unusual charge of the 
carriage-hire for a part of their bishop's visitation 
might bespeak times of primitive simplicity. 4 But 
it is painful to know, that these things marked the 
Church's poverty when Churchmen were rich. This 
clearly bespoke some great want in their system. 

1 Journal of 1821. 2 lb., 1826. 3 lb., 1827. 

4 Of a like character is the notice of a horse, worth a hun- 
dred dollars, being left on hand by a missionary, who, after it 
had been purchased for him, declined that sphere of labour. 



EPISCOPAL FUND. 291 

It is painful to find the aged Bishop Moore 
" thanking his laity for the patronage extended by 
them to his clergy and himself;" 1 and the more so 
when we see the utter failure of all efforts to raise 
funds for the support of the episcopate. Year by year 
the subject was renewed, and always with the same 
result. In vain did conventions dwell upon the need 
of the bishop's " visiting every part of the diocese, 
encouraging the desponding, rousing the thoughtless, 
giving direction to the zeal and energy of the pious, 
and impressing upon the whole a salutary impulse." 
In vain they urged that " words alone were cheap, and 
insufficient to make their cause flourish ;" in vain 
did the aged bishop himself press on them, time after 
time, that he thought this " a matter of leading im- 
portance ;" that the " wants of his own parish made 
his visitations in a diocese of 70,000 square miles in 
extent, hurried and ineffectual ;" in vain did he, when 
his age made it impossible that he should reap any 
personal advantage from it, supplicate them earnestly 
to make provision for his successor, — still the pro- 
posed fund made no perceptible advance, and scarcely 
could a few dollars be annually raised to supply him 
with assistance when he was well nigh worn out in 
their service. 

The same evil may be traced as pressing with its 
heavy weight on the inferior clergy. The bishop 
traces 2 to their " inadequate support, their frequent 

1 Journal of 1832. 2 lb., 1835. 



292 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

removal from one parish to another ; removals often 
attended with results injurious to the clergy, and 
always to the congregations left in a destitute state." 
He speaks " of the want of support producing un- 
easiness in their minds, and paralysing their efforts," 
and of " extreme penury borne with silent suffering 
by the pious, excellent, and well-educated clergy- 
man." 

These are painful features. Some of them are 
evils inherent in the voluntary system ; some of them 
were the remains of the torpid numbness which had 
long entranced religion. But from these we turn 
gladly to the brighter prospect. There was a great 
rekindling of personal devotion. An ardent zeal 
largely pervaded the younger clergy : poor as was 
their earthly recompense, their ranks were now re- 
cruited from the best blood of Virginia, the most 
aristocratic district of the Union. Though still far 
too few for the population, their number was greatly 
on the increase. The seven who met in convention 
at the election of Bishop Moore had multiplied to 
thirty- five. 

This was, in a great measure, his work. For 
fourteen years Bishop Moore continued, without in- 
terruption, his successful labours ; and then feeling 
the infirmities of age beginning to abate his vigour, 
he applied, in 1828, to his convention, begging them 
to nominate a clergyman for consecration as his suf- 
fragan. In the convention of the following year his 
wish was gratified by the election of the Rev. Wm. 



COADJUTOR BISHOP. 293 

Meade to fill the office. It was, however, clogged 
with one unwise condition. Dr. Meade was elected 
suffragan only for the life of Bishop Moore ; and on 
his death a new election was to nominate his abso- 
lute successor. Against this the house of bishops 
instantly protested ; and as Virginia jealously main- 
tained her own arrangement, a dispute, and pro- 
bably a breach, appeared to be at hand ; but it was 
happily avoided by the consecration of the suffragan 
elect, while the danger of the precedent was turned 
aside by the enactment of a general canon, which 
defined the office and secured in every instance the 
succession of assistant -bishops. Virginia shewed 
her sense of the judicious kindness of this treatment, 
by removing, in 1829, of her own act, the restriction 
she had placed on Dr. Meade's succession. In him 
Bishop Moore found a meet assistant and a worthy 
successor. 

The two worked happily together ; and, till the 
aged principal was gathered to his rest, he watched 
with full rejoicing over the prosperous labours of 
his younger coadjutor. " To the neighbourhoods and 
distant congregations I once visited with great de- 
light/' he says, a little while before his end, " I 
have bidden, through the effects of infirmity, a final 
adieu ; and it is only on the return of our conven- 
tional meetings that I am blessed with the sight of 
my old friends, and am permitted to shake by the 
hands a family of clergymen who have been set 
cc 2 



294 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

apart to the ministry of the Gospel by myself. From 
the record of the clergy of the diocese, I find that, 
out of sixty-six, forty-four have received the impo- 
sition of my own hands, and been clothed with mi- 
nisterial authority by myself. Be determined," con- 
tinues the aged bishop, " I beseech you, to make 
full proof of your ministry. Preach Jesus Christ, 
and Him crucified. In all your trials, my beloved 
sons, may the Almighty be your place of refuge ; 
and underneath you may He place the everlasting 
arms of His love." l With his " latest voice," it w r as, 
he declared, his own hope that he should " proclaim 
the riches of redeeming grace," and assert, in his 
" last moments," that "God is love." 2 

To keep unbroken the thread of Virginian his- 
tory we have followed out the life of Bishop Moore, 
and advanced far beyond the dates to which we must 
now return. 

The blessing which Virginia thus received in 
1814, had been given some years sooner, not only 
to New T York, but to the whole Church of North 
America, in the episcopate of Dr. John Henry Ho- 
bart. For ten years after Bishop Provoost's resig- 
nation, New York remained in the care of the gentle- 
hearted Bishop B. Moore. But, in March 1811, an 
attack of paralysis brought his active labours to a 
sudden close. Feeling keenly his unfitness for the 

1 Journals of Virginian Conventions. 

2 Life of Bishop Moore, p. 210. 



ELECTION OF BISHOP HOBART. 295 

charge which rested on him, he called at once a 
special convention, and urged them to appoint an 
assistant-bishop, who should share or undertake the 
anxieties and labours of his post. The convention 
followed his advice ; and proceeding at once to the 
election, nominated John Henry Hobart, one of the 
assistant-ministers of Trinity, New York. 

This was a turning point in the history of the 
Western Church. Hobart was a man who at any 
time would have left on his communion an impress 
of his own character ; in the unformed state of insti- 
tutions and opinions in that land, it could not fail of 
being deeply and broadly marked. Identified as is 
his personal history with the great movement we 
have now to trace, we shall better understand his 
principles and influence, if we first mark the forma- 
tion of his character, and the course of his life. 1 

Hobart was sprung from the best of the old Pu- 
ritan stock. His ancestor, the Rev. Peter Hobart, 
the son of " parents eminent for piety," 2 and him- 
self " a painful servant of the Lord," settled at 
Massachusetts in 1635. He was " a person that 
met with many temptations and afflictions," 3 and 
who, amongst the New-England worthies, bore away 
the palm for " well-studied sermons." Though so 

1 The events of Bishop Hobart' s life are drawn freely from 
Dr. M'Vickar's Memoir, except where a special reference indi- 
cates another source. 

2 Cotton Mather's Magnalia, b. iii. p. 153. 

3 Ibid. p. 155. 



296 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

devoted to his views of truth that he quitted a be- 
loved home to avoid what he esteemed the " black- 
ening cloud of prelatical impositions," he was a man 
of a Catholic spirit ; with a " heart knit in a most 
sincere and hearty love towards pious men, though 
they were not in all things of his own persuasion. 
He would admire the grace of God in good men, 
though they were of sentiments contrary unto his, 
and would say, I can carry them in my bosom." 
There were none, indeed, from whom he so much 
turned away, as those amongst his own people, 
" who, under a pretence of zeal for Church-disci- 
pline, were very pragmatical in controversies ; but 
at the same time most unjust creatures, destitute of 
the life and power of godliness." These he would 
bridle with the saying : " Some men are all Church 
and no Christ." 

Of his race proceeded a goodly company of 
preachers ; amongst whom the apostolic Brainerd 
must be mentioned as his daughter's son. From 
this Peter Hobart, sprung in the fourth generation 
the future bishop of New York ; and in many traits 
of character the stamp of the old pilgrim-father was 
repeated in him. His immediate parents had mi- 
grated to Philadelphia, and rejoined the ancient 
Church of their old English forefathers. There his 
early youth was spent beneath the pastoral charge 
of the venerable Bishop White. It was a youth of 
the fairest promise ; the joy and hope of his early- 
widowed mother. At the close of his education he 



YOUTH OF BISHOP HOBART. 297 

was almost drawn into a life of business. But better 
things were in store for him ; and the guiding Hand 
led him, instead, to devote his energy and powers 
to the ministry of Christ's Church. His preparation 
for its duties was patient and severe. The head of 
his college wished him to begin by studying a sys- 
tem of divinity ; but from this easier mode of ob- 
taining a general dogmatic accuracy, the healthy 
instincts of his soul revolted ; and complaining of 
the plan of " studying Scripture to support pre- 
conceived opinions." he wisely resolved " to take 
up systems when he had gone through the study of 
the Bible." After due preparation he presented him- 
self for ordination before the good old man by whom 
he had already been first received at the font, and 
then confirmed by the laying on of hands ; and from 
him received his orders and mission as a minister of 
Christ. Truly humble was his estimate of himself : 
11 I am far from thinking that I am qualified for 
the ministry either in mental or spiritual acquire- 
ments, ... I am afraid that my views are not suffi- 
ciently pure. . . . Sacred and awful will be my 
duties ; the grace of God can alone enable me to 
execute them. . . . Oh, pray with me, that I may have 
a single eye to His glory and the salvation of im- 
mortal souls ; that He would subdue within me every 
desire of honour, emolument, or human praise; and 
that I may serve Him with sincerity and truth." 1 

1 M'Vickar's Life, p. 152. 



298 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

With such self-suspicion did he turn away from 
those paths which would have led him straight to 
earthly fame, and addict himself to the humble walk 
of the American ministry. 

He was ordained, in 1798, to the charge of two 
small parishes within the diocese of Pennsylvania ; 
one of them amongst the earliest gathered in that 
district by the missionary labours of George Keith ; 
and still, to the grief of its young pastor, a "dis- 
persed flock, with little zeal, and much intermixed 
with other denominations/' 1 Here he stayed a year ; 
and having hence removed, first to New Brunswick, 
and then to Hampstead in Long Island, he settled, in 
the autumn of 1800, as assistant-minister of Trinity 
Church, New York. This was a prominent situa- 
tion, and one to which, under common circumstances, 
no deacon of two years could have aspired ; since 
New York might be considered the metropolis of 
North America, and Trinity stood at the head of all 
its churches. 2 Unlike the rest, its revenues were 
ample, having been endowed by Lord Cornbury, the 
royal governor, with a farm, which is now covered 
by the increasing town. Its ministers had always 

1 Letter to the Rev. E. Grant,— M'Vickar's Life, p. 170. 

2 Before the Revolution it stood 1 46 feet in length, 72 in 
width, and with a spire of ISO feet in height. In 1776, in com- 
mon with the city round it, it was consumed by fire, and lay 
in ruins through the war of the Revolution. A new church 
was built in 1788, which, though 42 feet shorter, was of a higher 
character than its predecessor. This, in its turn, has given place 
to the present imposing structure. 



hobart's early ministry. 299 

been the leading men of their body. 1 Here, then, 
Hobart took his station, and was soon conspicuous 
for the zealous assiduity with which he discharged 
its duties. Though when he first settled in New 
York he " panted for the country," and thought 
that he " could never like a city," yet he was soon 
fixed in it for life ; declining a call to his native town 
because he possessed where he was " every oppor- 
tunity for the exercise of whatever means of useful- 
ness" he could command. 

These opportunities were manifold. As a 
preacher he rose quickly to the highest rank ; in 
pastoral visits, and the distracting detail of ministe- 
rial life, he was active and unwearied : and yet for 
the labours of his study he saved many hours by late 
watching and early application, and snatched others 
by ready diligence from the intervals of busy days. 

" His earliest residence was a very small two- 
story house, the rear of which was rendered airy by 
the proximity of the river. The attic chamber here 
formed his study, as being the most retired and 
quiet spot in the house, with windows looking out 
over the noble expanse of the Hudson to the oppo- 
site shores of Jersey, and having for the back-ground 
of the view the distant hills of Springfield. 

1 Rev. Charles Inglis, D.D. (afterwards first Bishop of 
Nova Scotia) .... was rector from 1777 to 1783. 

Right Rev. G. Provoost 1783 to 1800. 

Right Rev. B. Moore 1800 to 1816. 

Right Rev. J. H. Hobart .... 1811 to 1830. 



300 AMERICAN CIIURCH. 

" In this little sanctum, surrounded, or, to speak 
more justly, walled-in, by piles of folios and heaps 
of pamphlets, through the zig-zag mazes of which it 
was no easy matter for a stranger to make his way, 
you might find the young theologian entrenched, 
and passing every minute both of the day and night 
that could be snatched from sleep and hasty meals, 
or spared from the higher claims of parochial duty. 
These latter interruptions were so numerous, that by 
one less vigorously resolute in gathering up the scat- 
tered crumbs of time, they would have been pleaded 
as a sufficient apology for the remission of all study 
beyond necessary preparation for the pulpit." 1 

But this was far from Mr. Hobart's habit. From 
this study proceeded many devotional and other 
works, some original, and some remodelled by his 
pen ; and here he devised, and, till his accession to 
the episcopate, conducted, " The Churchman's Ma- 
gazine," a monthly publication which contributed in 
no slight measure to raise the principles and hopes 
of those to whom it was addressed. To these more 
private occupations he added the discharge of public 
duties. He was early 2 elected secretary to the dio- 
cesan convention of New York ; and chosen one of 
the deputies to represent the diocese in the general 
convention which met the same year. In each de- 
partment he was at once distinguished as a man of 
business. From 1801 till 1811 he discharged the 
duties of the first, and was always re-elected to the 
1 M'Vickars Life. 2 In 1801. 



STATE OF FEELING IN NEW YORK. 301 

second. He was also annually chosen on the stand- 
ing committee of the diocese. 

But it was not in this course of labour, useful as 
it was, that his chief services were rendered. To 
understand these we must look more closely into 
his character and principles, and see their peculiar 
action on the state of things around him. He came, 
then, to New York when the universal tone of 
thought and feeling in the body which he joined was 
low and torpid. The impression of their first bi- 
shop's character was plainly legible upon the Church- 
men of New York : with indistinct views of Chris- 
tian doctrine ; moralists for the most part, rather 
than believers ; conscious of being objects of suspi- 
cion, and almost thinking that suspicion just, — they 
never ventured in defending their position beyond 
the cautious tone of timid apology. 

In this state Hobart found matters ; but their 
continuance in this state he would not endure. 
Trained in a Presbyterian college, he was a Church- 
man on the fullest conviction of his reason. He 
early declared 1 his own principles to run up in brief 
into these two : " That we are saved from the guilt 
and dominion of sin by the divine merits and grace 
of a crucified Redeemer ; and that the merits and 
grace of this Redeemer are applied to the soul of 
the believer by devout and humble participation in 
the ordinances of the Church, administered by a 

1 Preface to a Companion to the Altar, by J. H. Hobart. 
1804. 

D D 



302 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

priesthood who derive their authority by regular 
transmission from Christ, the divine Head of the 
Church, and the source of all the power in it." 

Many a sleeper must have been startled by such 
a voice as this, whether true or false in its announce- 
ment, from one resolute, and thoroughly in earnest : 
and Hobart was both. He was convinced that this 
was the truth, and he was ready to live or to die for it. 
All his ministry spoke this conviction. In the pulpit 
" he warned, counselled, entreated, and comforted, 
with intense power and energy. His rpanner and 
voice struck you with the deep interest which per- 
vaded his soul for their salvation. He appeared . . . 
.... as a herald from the other world, standing be- 
tween the dead and the living . . . entreating perish- 
ing sinners not to reject the message of reconcilia- 
tion which the Son of the living God so graciously 
offered for their acceptance." 3 " He never ceased 
to preach ' Christ crucified/ the only Saviour of 
sinners ; and to exhort them, ( even with tears,' to 
lay hold upon that salvation, by entering into cove- 
nant with Him in that Church which He had pur- 
chased with His blood." 2 And what he was in the 
pulpit he was every w T here ; by the sick-bed or in 
society, abroad or at home, this was still his watch- 
word — " The Gospel in the Church," " Evangelical 

1 Letter to the Rev. T. Chalmers, D.D., on the Life and 
Character of the Right Rev. Dr. Hobart, by Archdeacon 
Strachan. 

2 Dr. M'Vickar, p. 187. 



hobart's earnestness. 303 

truth and apostolical order :" these he pressed on 
all as the subjects closest to his own heart, and the 
most concerning theirs. The awakening sleepers of 
his own communion could not understand him ; and 
feeling only his warmth reprove their coldness, they 
knew not whether to reproach him as a " High 
Churchman, or Methodist." Still he rose daily in 
general esteem. His sincerity could not be ques- 
tioned, and none could doubt his kindness ; whilst 
his talents for business were seen and felt by all. 
Hence his constant re-election as secretary to his 
own, and delegate to the general, convention. 

Other effects also were soon visible. The cold 
timidity which had benumbed all men began to pass 
away. He was gathering round him a band of 
younger men, laity as well as clergy, of a new 
temper — men who believed that Christ had indeed 
founded a spiritual kingdom, and that they had 
functions in it to discharge, and powers with which 
to fulfil them. The fruit of this was soon seen on 
all sides : in the increased attendance on conven- 
tions ; the growing support of Church societies; and, 
which was far better, in the new religious earnest- 
ness of all. It is clear that he was raised up to do 
a special work ; to consolidate and bind together the 
loose and crumbling mass ; to raise the general tone ; 
to animate their zeal; to save them from the fatal 
apathy into which they were subsiding. 

But this change could not pass on his own com- 
munion and not be felt abroad. The Church of 



304 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

that day was utterly depressed. The time, indeed, 
was in some degree gone by, when the " prejudices 
against the name and office of a bishop were such as 
to make it doubtful whether any person in that cha- 
racter would be tolerated in the community." 1 But 
it was "a time of loose principles and morals;" 2 
and suspicion had given place only to contempt. 
" He had been invested," was the language used 
concerning Bishop Seabury's consecration, " or ima- 
gined himself invested, with certain extraordinary 
powers by the manual imposition of a few obscure 
and ignorant priests in Scotland." 3 Under such a 
stigma Churchmen had been hitherto contented to 
remain ; unresisting, if not half persuaded of its jus- 
tice. But this was now past ; and the altered tem- 
per of the Church was felt. It was not that Hobart 
assailed those without ; he addressed his own peo- 
ple ; but so his voice passed of necessity abroad, and 
stirred up attacks to which he rejoined. He was 
called out by the times, and he was needful for them. 
Dr. Mason, the leading Presbyterian of the day, in 
a review which he conducted, aimed a blow intended 
to " give a quietus to the aspiring ambition of the 
young Churchman." With this formidable opponent 
Mr. Hobart calmly and gravely joined issue, in "An 
Apology for Apostolic Order and its Advocates," 
published in 1807, which is said to have drawn from 

1 Bishop White's Dedication of Mem. of Epis. Chur. 

2 Letter of Bishop J. H. Hobart,— M'Vickar's Life, p. 235. 

3 American Unitarianism, p. 1-5 ; quoted by Dr. M'Vickar. 



HOBART AND DR. MASON. 305 

his keen antagonist himself the remarkable admis- 
sion : " Were I compelled to entrust the safety of 
my country to any one man, that man should be 
John Henry Hobart." 

Nor was it only by the pen that he had to defend 
this cause. His chief power lay in action. It would 
be hard to find in his writings any of the stamp of 
genius. They are plain, energetic, forcible, and 
marked throughout by the strong common sense of 
a man of business. In his practical power was his 
strength ; action was natural to him. This strength 
was first tested as trustee of Columbia College. Open 
to all denominations, this had received its endow- 
ments from the gift of the Episcopalians of Trinity 
Church, New York. Its board-meetings were a field 
of battle on which each persuasion sought to obtain 
the mastery, and in this strife the true interests of the 
college were neglected. After many struggles, the 
Presbyterian Dr. Mason had attained to almost un- 
disputed sway. Of commanding size and features, 
bold, eloquent, and bitter, few men dared to face his 
withering and scornful sarcasm. But he now met 
one who feared him not. Wanting in the gifts of 
person, Hobart had all the mental and moral quali- 
ties which make men leaders of their fellows. Un- 
daunted, ready, and sagacious, he never abandoned 
a principle, deserted a friend, or quailed before an 
enemy. " The Church needs no abler representa- 
tive," was the judgment of a bystander, a sectarian 
and a lawyer, who witnessed these contentions ; "he 
d d 2 



306 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

has all the talents of a leader ; he is the most par- 
liamentary speaker I ever met with ; he is equally 
prompt, logical, and practical. I never saw that 
man thrown off his centre." In these struggles Ho- 
bart gained the day. His position was, that there 
must be one distinct line in the management of such 
a trust ; that for this there must be an ascertained 
majority in favour of one party ; and that here, the 
body which supplied the funds was justly entitled to 
the supremacy. His success was complete ; and 
the undivided energy with which the interests of 
the college were promoted when this majority was 
ascertained, justified the conflicts by which it was 
secured. 

One other quality which fitted him to lead was 
shewn in these contentions. During these ten years 
of public strife, it may be doubted if he made one 
private enemy. He had inherited his pilgrim-father's 
largeness of affection ; and whilst identified with that 
which he esteemed the cause of truth, he lived on 
terms of unrestrained friendship with those of other 
views. 

It was in the midst of this active course, that 
Hobart was elected bishop. Difficulties beset his 
consecration ; for the American episcopate was already 
so reduced in number, that it was no easy matter to 
obtain the presence of three bishops. Bishops Sea- 
bury, R. Smith, and Bass had entered on their rest ; 
Bishop Moore was incapacitated by paralysis ; Bishop 
Claggett was turned back by dangerous sickness ; 



CONSECRATION OF HOBART. 307 

and Bishop Madison was bound by oath to residence 
within his college in Virginia. There remained only 
Bishops White, Jarvis, and Provoost — himself in 
great infirmity, and having, for the last ten years, 
performed no act belonging to his office. By these 
three, however, after some embarrassment, Dr. A. 
V. Griswold, elected bishop of the eastern diocese 
(now formed by the addition of Vermont and Rhode 
Island to Massachusetts and New Hampshire), and 
Dr. J. H. Hobart, were admitted to the highest order 
of the priesthood. To the presiding bishop it was 
an affecting service. Dr. Hobart, though not an 
untried, was yet a young man, 1 and to the spiritual 
father who had formerly baptised and confirmed him 
seemed to belong naturally the words of " Paul the 
aged/' 2 " Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the 
grace that is in Christ Jesus." 3 " I shall have 
peculiar satisfaction," he declared, " in the conse- 
cration of a brother, known in his infancy, in his 
boyhood, in his youth, and in his past labours in 
the ministry, .... and look with the most sanguine 
prospects to the issue." The old man dwelt with 
pleasure on the recollection of counsels he had 
given formerly to one who, for the future, was to be 
a colleague, and " who may," he added, " in the com- 
mon course of affairs, be expected to survive .... 
when he who gave those counsels shall be no more." 
In this only was his augury untrue. The younger 

1 Aged 35. 2 Philemon, 9. 

3 2 Tim. ii. 1. 



308 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ministry was first accomplished ; the younger man 
was gathered soonest to his rest ; and the aged 
saint survived to weep nineteen years later over 
his grave. 

No second candidate divided with Hobart the 
votes of the convention, and he opened his episcopate 
with general acclamations. But amidst these one voice 
of unworthy jealousy was loudly uttered. Another 
presbyter, a fellow-assistant at Trinity Church, New 
York, published his " solemn remonstrance " against 
this election. The ineffectual weapon recoiled at 
last, and with destructive force, against himself. But 
for the present the remonstrance awoke a tumult of 
bitterness and strife. One of its effects was to bring 
Bishop Provoost in a most unseemly manner again 
before the Church. No doubt he recognised in 
Hobart some of those features which had formerly 
been so distasteful to him in the first bishop of Con- 
necticut ; and under these impressions he became, 
in the weakness of old age, the tool of others to 
wound the assistant-bishop on whose head his own 
hand had just been laid. His first step was to claim 
a right to that jurisdiction which he had of old re- 
signed. This was met at once by the diocesan conven- 
tion. Distinguishing with careful accuracy between 
the indelible office of a bishop, which it had not given 
and could not remove, and that local jurisdiction to 
which he had been elected by itself, it resolved, that 
" the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost, immediately after 
the acceptance of his resignation by the convention 



BiSHor white's character of hobart. 309 

of the Church in this state> ceased to be the diocesan 
bishop thereof, and could no longer rightfully exer- 
cise the functions or jurisdiction appertaining to that 
office ; that having ceased to be the diocesan bishop 
as aforesaid, he could neither resume nor be restored 
to that character by any act of his own, or of the ge- 
neral convention, or either of its houses, without the 
consent and participation of the said state convention, 
which consent and participation the said Bishop Pro- 
voost has not obtained; and that his claim to such 
character is therefore unfounded. ,, 

Upon the passing of this resolution Bishop Pro- 
voost no longer urged his ill-advised claim. It was 
clear that he was altogether wrong. His spiritual 
order the convention could not touch ; but the juris- 
diction which he exercised in virtue of their choice, 
which he had resigned, and which had passed to 
Bishop Moore on his election by convention, it was 
as impossible for Dr. Provoost to resume at will. 

It is pleasant to contrast with this unhappy con- 
duct the course of the aged Bishop White. Of a 
wholly different school, he did full justice to the solid 
excellence of Hobart ; no creeping jealousy alloyed 
his praises. " Never/' he afterwards declared, had 
he " known any one on whose integrity and consci- 
entiousness of conduct he had more full reliance;" 
and in the prospect of his own approaching end, 
he had thought, he said, with " gratification, that he 
should leave behind him one whose past zeal and 



310 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

labours were a pledge that he would not cease to be 
efficient in extending the Church and preserving her 
integrity." 



CHAPTER X. 

FROM 1810 TO 1820. 

Episcopate of Bishop Hobart — Two first years of opposition — Rise of 
Church societies —Effect upon the laity — New tone of feeling and 
action — Bishop Hobart with his clergy — His language as to the 
Church of Rome — His visitations — General spread of the Church — 
Increase of bishoprics — State of " the west" — Need of missionary 
pastors — Pioneers of the Church — Lay readers — Samuel Gunn — 
His early years — Labours — Removal to Ohio — Consecration of 
Bishop Chase — His life — Founds Kenyon college — Its building — 
Students — Their missionary excursions — How received — Funds 
for domestic purposes — Jackson Kemper — Bishop Hobart's canon 
— His labours amongst the Indians — Oneida reserves — Eleazar 
Williams — His history — The bishop's visit. 

The episcopate of Dr. Hobart fulfilled the promise 
of his earlier years. It was that of one who had 
" purchased to himself a good degree" in the lower 
functions of the ministry, and now entered with 
" boldness" and faith on the discharge of the highest. 
Yet his two first years were years of trial and 
discouragement. The opposition which had followed 
his election had raised the troubled waters of angry 
contention, and they did not suddenly subside. It 
may be that his ardent spirit rendered such a check 
needful for one who was thus early raised to the seat 
of government and power. Assuredly it was borne 



312 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

meekly, and yielded for himself and many more the 
good fruits of a disciplined patience. At the close 
of these two years he had lived down this opposition, 
and was able to carry out his plans for the improve- 
ment of his diocese. These were all aimed in one 
direction. He desired to " stir up the gift of God" 
which he firmly believed was " in him ;" and to awaken 
all around to greater zeal and earnestness within the 
Church. Surrounded as it was with sects, w 7 ith none 
of those civil distinctions or hereditary prepossessions 
which, in the mother country, tend to define its sepa- 
rate form, all depended in America on the vigour of 
its inner life sufficing for its own development. This 
induced him, from the first, to direct the zeal of its 
members to the formation, within their own body, of 
the necessary instruments for home-education, for 
Christian charity, and for missionary enterprise. The 
Church, he maintained, ought to supply to Churchmen 
the organs for these several works of love : and he never 
shrunk from the responsibility or labour involved in 
presiding over them. His view T s on these points met 
at first with some opposition ; but justice has since 
been generally done to their far-sighted wisdom. 
" We award," 1 says the leading paper of the Metho- 
dists in 1835, " to the Episcopalians the priority in 
the defence of church or denominational, in opposition 
to national religious societies. We are informed that 
Bishop Hobart was the first to make a stand. Had 
others defended this plan with constancy, firmness, 

1 Quoted in Dr. M'Vickar's Life, p. 383. 



EFFECT UPON THE LAITY. 313 

and discretion, the general Church of God in this 
country would have been in a much better state." 

The effect of the system in New York was evi- 
dent. It gathered round the bishop a band of lay- 
men who felt and acted on the truth that they were 
indeed one body, of a fixed form, and with spiritual 
powers which the Lord Himself had marked out and 
imparted. No where was such a principle more re- 
quisite than in the disunited society of democratical 
America ; and here it produced its natural results. 
The more vigorous life which was awakening was 
visible on all sides ; one measure of its increase is 
incidentally supplied by the wider circulation of the 
Book of Common Prayer. Though in 1815 the 
tide had already turned, only 500 copies were is- 
sued from the depository, whilst within two years 
the sale had risen to 2239. 1 

But with this attention to the organic frame- 
work of the body over which it was his province 
to preside, the bishop joined a watchful care over 
the secret fountains of its hidden life. On laity 
and clergy he pressed by precept and example the 
supreme importance of a truly spiritual religion. 
In answering the solicitations of affection which 
would have persuaded him to lessen his own la- 
bours, he revealed the spring of all his conduct. 
" How," said he, " can I do too much for that com- 
passionate Saviour who has done so much for me ?" 2 

1 Dr. M'Vickar's Life, p. 387. 

2 Ibid. p. 568. 

E E 



314 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

He reminded his convention 1 that but little satisfac- 
tion could be gathered " from the increasing attach- 
ment to their distinctive principles and veneration 
for their institutions," unless with it were seen " an 
increase of evangelical piety." His clergy he conti- 
nually urged to " exert with prudence, fidelity, and 
zeal, all their talents and attainments in the service 
of their divine Lord and of the Church which He 
purchased with His blood," reminding them that " the 
spirit of the ministry must still be formed in retire- 
ment, by study, meditation, and prayer." 2 He cau- 
tioned them as plainly against any inclination towards 
" the gorgeous and unhallowed structure of the Papal 
hierarchy," on the one side, as against " the tumults 
of schism on the other." He had no shrinking from 
the title Protestant, and was wholly free from the 
temper which confounds the maintenance of Church 
principles with a secret inclination towards the Ro- 
mish communion. " God forbid," was his own de- 
claration, 3 " that I should say aught against the right 
of private judgment in matters of religion when pro- 
perly exercised. The doctrine that every man, being 
individually responsible to his Maker and Judge, 
must, in all those concerns that affect his spiritual 
and eternal welfare, act according to the dictates of 
his conscience, is that cardinal principle of the Pro- 
testant faith which should be most soundly guarded." 

1 Address to Convention of New York, 1814. 

2 M'Vickar'sLife,p. 339. 

3 Berrian's Memoir, p. 226. 



BISHOP HOBART WITH HIS CLERGY. 315 

And these words came to them from lips they learned 
to love. He was their friend and their counsellor. 
To him they turned naturally in sorrow, need, or 
difficulty ; and they found him always ready to bear 
gladly the burden which " came upon him daily, 
the care of all the churches. 5 ' 

Thus all his visitations told upon them : and with 
the trees which he loved to plant around the scat- 
tered parsonage, and which ever afterwards spoke to 
them of their bishop's presence and care even for 
these outer things, there were sowed in many hearts 
the seeds of better and more enduring produce. Few 
came thus into his company without receiving some 
impression ; all felt his influence ; — from the acute 
lawyer of the city who watched his public conduct, 
to the Presbyterian farmer of the backwoods, who 
declared, 1 " I at first felt a little afraid of your bishop 
that you brought to my house ; but I soon got over 
it, for he is the cleverest man I ever saw in my life. 
He is no more of a gentleman than I am." 

Under the rule of such a man we should expect 
to meet with evident improvement : nor will such 
hopes be disappointed. The internal progress of the 
diocese maybe marked in the returns of 1835, five 
years after Bishop Hobart's death. In that year there 
were reported 2626 baptisms, 10,630 communicants, 
198 clergymen, 215 parishes, and 8 new churches 
consecrated. The total amount of funds raised for 

1 M'Vickar's Life, p. 438. 



316 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

religious objects, besides the salaries of clergymen, 
amounted to 13,500/. The report of two years later 
shews a still continuing progress. The clergy then 
were 239, and 55 were candidates for holy orders; 
the parish churches had increased to 232, and 16 
new consecrations had marked the past year ; whilst 
the fund for the support of the episcopate had risen 
to 22,890/., a sum which made it thenceforth pos- 
sible to set the bishop free from any direct pastoral 
charge. 1 

By a blessed law of the new kingdom, this in- 
ternal vigour could not wholly spend itself within ; 
it must bear some good fruit on every side; the 
welling fountain must water other lands ; and the 
history of the whole Church bears many marks of 
the change we have been tracing. It may be dis- 
cerned in all directions. There was a continual 
increase in the numbers of the episcopate : in 1812 
Dr. Dehon, one of the purest and gentlest spirits 
ever separated to that work, was consecrated Bishop 
of South Carolina : in 1814, as we have seen, after 
a vacancy of two years, Virginia found in the conse- 
cration of Bishop Richard Moore the first means of 
her spiritual revival, and the disputed see of Mary- 
land was filled by Dr. Kemp ; whilst in that year 
the extension of the episcopate into the wide regions 
of the west first engaged the care of the general 
convention. But three years before, there had been, 
besides Bishop Provoost retired, and Bishop Moore 
1 Caswall's America, p. 151. 



GENERAL PROGRESS. 317 

disabled from infirmity, only six acting bishops for 
the sees of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, 
Virginia, Maryland, and the Eastern diocese. Within 
these sees there were, in Connecticut thirty clergy, 
twenty in Pennsylvania, in New York forty-four, in 
Virginia fifty, five in Maryland, and in the Eastern 
diocese 1 fifteen : in all, one hundred and ninety-four. 2 
But since this time a change had passed over the 
body; its members had begun to understand their 
own position ; higher and more intelligible ground 
was occupied ; their claim to the true succession 
from the Apostles of the Lord, and the need of such 
a warrant for His ministers, had been heard, discus- 
sed, and remained unrefuted in that land of sects ; 
the hearts of many turned towards it from the con- 
fusion and weariness of endless self- multiplying 
division ; its clergy now numbered two hundred 
and forty, and were so rapidly increasing that they 
were quadrupled within the next twenty-four years ; 
the vacant seats of the bishops were filled up. In 
1815 New Jersey received in Dr. Croes her first 
spiritual head; in 1818 Dr. N. Bowen succeeded 
Bishop Dehon, who had been already taken to his 
rest ; and in the following year Dr. Brownell sup- 
plied the vacancy of Bishop Jarvis ; whilst the first 
mitre of " the West" was placed upon the manly and 
enduring brow of Philander Chase. 

1 Composed of Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Ver- 
mont, and New Hampshire. 

2 CaswalTs America, p. 186. 

ee2 



318 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

The life of this prelate brings under our notice 
a peculiar feature of the Church in America. In 
the large towns and settled districts of the north 
and east its growth and increase cannot differ widely 
from that which we see amongst ourselves, — it is 
opposed by the same difficulties — it has to subdue 
them with the same arms. But in the wide wilder- 
ness which stretches far behind the settled districts 
of America, it pursues its work of mercy under new 
and peculiar conditions. These we must survey 
more closely, or in this long-settled country we shall 
never understand how little without constant domes- 
tic missions the cause of Christ can spread abroad 
throughout that land. 

At this time 1 in America the tide of civilised life 
had flowed but a very little westward. Along the 
sea-coast and near the mouths of the great rivers 
the white men had long been settled, great cities 
had grown up, busy multitudes thronged the streets, 
every acre was possessed and cultivated, and there 
was little left to shew that two centuries before, large 
forests, where the axe had never rung, had darkened 
all this coast, amidst the glades of which the cunning 

1 This account is mainly taken from the interesting work 
of the Rev. Henry Caswall, M.A., by birth an Englishman, 
and now a curate in the English diocese of Salisbury, but 
lately rector of Christ Church, Madison, Indiana, and some 
time professor in the theological seminary of the diocese of 
Kentucky, — to whose published volume, and private assistance, 
the author begs, once for all, to record here his deep obliga- 
tions. 



THE WESTERN WILDERNESS. 319 

Indian hunter might be seen stealthily pursuing his 
game. But on leaving the sea-board the scene soon 
changed; the settlers became fewer and fewer; after 
a time even the backwood farmer disappeared; the 
roads abruptly ended ; the traveller got amongst clear- 
ings, where the axe had but just begun its work; and 
where the stumps of the giants of the forest still 
stood in their native soil, though mutilated by the 
strong arm which had felled their glory, or charred 
by the fire which had been brought in aid of man 
for their destruction. Here was found the squatter 
and his family, who had come forth from civilised 
society, taken up their abode in this far wilderness, 
cleared the timber, acquired the soil by their own 
labour, built their log hut, and now with the rifle, 
which they well knew how to use, provided them- 
selves with food, and maintained against all intruders 
their title to their " clearing." Beyond these again 
lay the great forest, with its uniform dark frowning 
front, its carpet of leaves, its endless shadows, its 
game, and its red hunters. 

In the ranks of those who made up this advanced 
guard of civilised society were persons of every 
condition and character. Amongst them were some 
who found it convenient to fly from the punishment 
threatened by the laws which they had broken ; 
others who had contracted debts, from the liability 
of which they were hopeless of otherwise escaping ; 
whilst the number was completed by men of enter- 
prising spirits or of restless tempers, who found or 



320 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

expected to find in the west an easier provision for 
themselves and their families than had fallen to their 
lot amongst the contentions and competitions of more 
populous districts. This tide was ever rising, and 
the black line of the forest receded farther and far- 
ther as it advanced. The squatter found himself 
disturbed by neighbours, his wild independence was 
straitened, and his rifle yielded less for his support; 
he began to crave after the forest stillness ; and 
having sold his clearing to some farmer, who, having 
a little more capital and a little less enterprise, was 
willing to enter into the fruit of his labours, he 
shouldered his axe anew and cast himself upon the 
pathless forest. Thus year by year, and almost day 
by day, the stream of population flowed on ; — the 
stragglers multiplied, log huts grew into villages, 
and before the charred stumps were rotted in the 
ground, streets and towns had grown up round them, 
and man with all the multitude of his inventions was 
there. But amongst those many inventions Christia- 
nity was too often forgotten. The mass of such men 
brought little of it with them, and that little was 
soon lost. No existing ministry pressed upon them 
the truths of the unseen world ; no village-bells re- 
minded them of worship and of praise ; no ancient 
spire pointed with its silent finger towards the hea- 
ven above them. There was for the most part 
amongst them little sense of the needs of a spi- 
ritual life : even if the settler were not one who in 
the midst of the means of grace had resisted God's 



THE DWELLERS IN THE WILDERNESS. 2>%\ 

goodness and hardened his own heart, yet this care- 
less outward life pressed always upon him. It was 
all too natural that the making provision for the 
other life should be postponed, until a time of more 
leisure or greater competence. Thus the last re- 
maining impress of Christianity was worn off, and 
the children trained in such scenes grew up as hea- 
thens, with no faith in Christ or fear of God — un- 
baptised at birth, and unnurtured from the cradle. 
Or if there still lingered on amongst these wild men 
some resemblance of Christianity, or if yearnings 
after better things sprung up within their hearts, 
still the Church was not amongst them to seize on 
and turn to lasting profit the precious opportunity. 
Sacraments they had none ; ministers of God, wit- 
nesses for Christ, how should these be found in these 
far wilds ? They were not : and so the rude settler 
must become his own priest ; and this, which was far 
the best state of things, nourished the seeds of inde- 
pendence ; and the religion which sprung up was as 
when men cast seeds into uncultivated lands, — they 
grow up, but degenerate, and the ears become thinner 
and the fruit becomes scantier, until its first type 
is almost lost, and it can scarcely be discerned from 
one of the wild plants around it. 

It was in looking on these evils, which were 
ripening in the western parts of his own diocese of 
New York, that the heart of Bishop Hobart was 
stirred up, and he pressed upon the Church the 
need of sending forth as of old her army of mis- 



322 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

sionary teachers, who should plant in these young 
lands, and minister amongst these growing tribes, the 
knowledge of Christ and the sacraments of His grace. 
His words were heard — the work was undertaken — 
and it prospered in their hands. Various were the 
instruments employed, as God blessed the feeble 
beginning ; but the work was soon proceeding. The 
pioneer of these labours was often the humble lay 
reader, who prepared the way for the feet of Christ's 
ambassadors. 

In the life of such a labourer we shall trace the 
progress of the fertilising stream. Samuel Gunn 1 
was one of these. He was born in Connecticut in 
1763, and baptised by one of the missionaries of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts. His early youth was unharmed by 
the dangers and temptations of the war of inde- 
pendence, and he was amongst the first who pre- 
sented themselves to receive from Bishop Seabury 
the blessing of confirmation. His blameless cha- 
racter and holy life recommended him to the no- 
tice of the good bishop, who watched with apos- 
tolic zeal over the risings of chastened piety within 
his infant diocese ; and as the parish in which he was 
settled was without a clergyman, Samuel Gunn was 
appointed lay reader to a small band of devout 
Christians who met there to worship God according 
to the order of the Church liturgy. Now and then 

1 See Caswall's America and American Church. 



THE LAY READER. 



323 



a clergyman visited the district, and administered 
amongst them the especial rites of our religion; but 
for the most part, during ten or twelve years, they 
depended chiefly on Samuel Gunn. 

At the end of this period, his family having in- 
creased, and the soil of Connecticut, naturally some- 
what barren, and now much exhausted, not affording 
them the means of living, he determined to move 
westward. He settled in the outskirts of the state of 
New York, amidst a population made up of moving 
emigrants. Amongst them he resumed his office 
of lay reader, until he had gathered together so many 
that they formed themselves into a parish, and ob- 
tained the ministrations of a settled clergyman. 

For twelve years he was now stationary ; but in 
the autumn of 1805, finding difficulties gather round 
him, he determined on a new emigration ; and after 
paying every debt he had contracted, set off again 
with all belonging to him for the farther west. As 
he journeyed, one of the sorrows of the early settler 
fell on him ; he lost a child by a sudden and violent 
death, and had himself to dig its grave and leave 
in the silence of the leafy forest the mouldering dust 
which should one day hear the voice of the Son of 
God, and rise like the long-buried seed out of its 
place to light and life. In the month of November 
he reached the banks of the Ohio river, then a wild 
and comparatively unvisited stream ; and embarking 
on a sort of raft-boat, he floated with his family and 
goods down the stream until he came to the neigh- 



324 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

bourhood of a small settlement of ten or twelve 
houses, which seemed suited to his purpose. 

Here he settled; and the voice of prayer and 
praise in the language of the liturgy was soon after- 
wards heard on the banks of the Ohio. For years 
his own family formed all his congregation ; but at 
length a band was gathered out of the village of 
Portsmouth, who united with him in his holy wor- 
ship. In the course of the year 1819, he heard 
that the state in which he was settled (Ohio) had 
been regularly formed into a diocese, and that a bi- 
shop had been elected and consecrated. The heart of 
the pious Churchman was filled with hope and joy 
at this announcement ; and these feelings were soon 
afterwards increased by his learning that his new 
bishop was no stranger to him, but one whom as a 
missionary he had frequently received under his hum- 
ble roof whilst he acted as lay reader in the western 
wilds of New York. As soon as Gunn knew that 
he was in a regularly formed diocese, he desired to 
put himself under the direction of its head; and he 
wrote accordingly to his bishop, announcing the state 
of things in his village of Portsmouth, and pointing 
out the blessings which he thought would flow from 
a visit on the part of their chief shepherd. For a 
time the bishop could not himself act upon this call ; 
but he sent at once a clergyman to refresh with the 
consolations of the Gospel those spirits which were 
fainting in the desert. In about a month the bishop 
himself arrived. The ground was not fully preoccupied 



SAMUEL GUNN. 325 

by any existing sect ; Gunn's labours had removed 
some prejudice, and excited some attention, and 
curiosity as well as better feelings were at work ; so 
that when the court-house of the village was made 
ready for the bishop's use, numbers flocked to hear 
him. His simple earnest piety deeply impressed 
the congregation ; and he did not leave the village 
until he had organised a parish, of which Gunn was 
elected senior warden, and to which, under the 
bishop's authority, he ministered as lay reader until 
it was possible to send a clergyman amongst them. 
His labours were assisted by the discovery of a 
set of Prayer-books in the village " store." These, 
which had long slept as unsaleable commodities, were 
now in such request, that (money-payments being 
rare in those back settlements) as many as twenty 
bushels of corn were sometimes given for a single 
copy. 

For three years Gunn kept together the con- 
gregation by these simple services, though they were 
years of trial and rebuke. Disease, which raged 
in the village, thinned continually the little flock ; 
and when, in 1823, he procured once a month the 
services of a clergyman, who came fifty miles to 
minister amongst them, they were dwindled down 
so low as often to excite the ridicule of the profane. 
But few as they were, the seed of life was amongst 
them, and it only needed the fostering presence of 
the Church's ordinances to spring up and be seen 
openly. In 1831 they set apart and fitted up a 

F F 



326 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

room in which to worship God according to the 
manner of their fathers ; and in this year the aged 
lay reader rejoiced to hand over his work to an or- 
dained minister, 1 who was at length settled amongst 
them. 

But all the good man's work was not yet done. He 
had to shew that he could suffer patiently as well as 
labour zealously. Within a few weeks of yielding up 
his charge, a violent accident, which at first threat- 
ened his life, deprived him of the sight of one eye, and 
enfeebled his health ever afterwards. One service 
more was left for him to perform. In the winter fol- 
lowing his accident he called together his neighbours 
and friends, and earnestly urged them to erect a 
church in which they might together worship God. 
He ended his address by saying : " You know, my 
friends, that I am not rich, and that twice I have 
lost my all. Yet Providence has given me enough, 
and my property is now worth a little more than two 
thousand dollars ; of this I will give one third towards 
the erection of the proposed edifice, on condition 
that you will contribute the remainder of the ne- 
cessary amount.' ' 

It was well for him, as for David of old, that " it 
was in his heart to build a house for the Lord his 
God ;" but the good man lived not to worship in it, 
or even to lay its corner-stone. Before that time 
came, his warfare was accomplished, and he was re- 

1 The Rev. H. Caswail, from whose work this whole ac- 
count is taken. 



BIRTH OF PHILANDER CHASE. 327 

ceived by the Master whom he had so long and so 
faithfully served into the bright and blessed rest of 
Paradise. 

Such are the labours of the humbler pioneers of 
the Church in America ; and the life of the bishop 
who thus followed one of them into the wilderness 
will illustrate that of her missionary clergy. Dr. 
Philander Chase, then just appointed bishop of Ohio, 
was born in December 1775, 1 on the high banks of 
Connecticut river, a few miles north of Charlestown, 
which was then the extreme verge of the settled 
country. The American founder of his race, Aquila 
Chase, a native of Cornwall in England, settled with 
his wife and family, in the seventeenth century, at 
Newbury in Massachusetts. Like all their neigh- 
bours, they were Independent Congregationalists, and 
like very many of them, they were truly right-minded 
godly people. To their descendants after them they 
handed on their religious creed and their personal 
piety ; 2 and Philander Chase was born of parents 
who had first ventured amidst the shadows of the 

1 Reminiscences of Bishop Chase, by himself, passim. 

2 The family-records give a passing picture of Puritan life 
amongst the pilgrims of Massachusetts, in recording that Capt. 
Aquila Chase, a leading man amongst them, was brought to 
trial because on his reaching home, from a long voyage, on Sun- 
day morning, his wife had gathered and dressed her first dish 
of green peas to welcome him. It was in vain that he pleaded 
the danger of scurvy and necessities of health ; the utmost fa- 
vour he received was, to escape the infliction of " forty-stripes- 
save-one" by the payment of a heavy fine. 



328 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

mighty forest, supported only by their own stout 
hearts, and an unshaken confidence in their covenant 
God. The youngest of fourteen children, most of 
whom had left their father's tent in the forest for the 
various walks of busy life, Philanders early aspira- 
tions pointed to the patriarchal life, of which the 
grey-haired man before him was so encouraging an 
instance. He would close that father's eyes, and 
inherit the home-farm his hands had formed out of 
the forest. 

But God had destined him for greater things : and 
severe sufferings, first from a maimed and then from 
a broken limb, were His messengers of good to the 
young farmer. During his son's long confinement 
the old man watched by his sleepless bed, and read 
to him the writing of the hand which had thus come 
forth for him upon the wall ; " By these sufferings 
God was calling to Himself His destined servant : 
college life and the service of the ministry were 
plainly his appointed sphere." 

To college accordinglv he went ; and falling- in 
there with the Common Prayer-Book, he was won 
over by its holy tone, and its exhibition of " the 
authenticated claims" 1 of the Episcopal ministry to 
an apostolic commission ; and he returned to the 
farm upon the Connecticut, to lead back his aged 
father into the Church from which he and his had 
been so long estranged. By their own hands and 

1 Bishop Chase's Reminiscences, 



YOUTH OF PHILANDER CHASE. 329 

with entire harmony of feeling the meeting-house, 
where his father and Ins grandfather had officiated 
as congregational deacons, was pulled down, and a 
church erected in its stead. Here they welcomed 
the occasional visits of distant clergy, and here, in 
their absence and under their direction, Philander 
Chase read as a layman prayers and sermons. 

He was now twenty years of age, and his heart 
was set upon the labours of the ministry. But how 
to obtain ordination he knew not. No theological 
seminaries then sheltered early piety, and fostered 
such pious resolutions ; no bishop was at hand to 
direct and crown his labours. With trembling steps, 
and all the bashfulness of youth, he set out for Albany 
to obtain help and guidance. " A rebuff would have 
turned his face another way." 

But he met with no such discouragement. He 
reached Albany, and was directed to the house of 
the " English dominie." " Is this the Rev. Mr. 
Ellison's?" he asked, as the top of a Dutch-built 
door was opened by a portly gentleman in black, 
with prominent and piercing eyes and powdered 
hair. Having announced his name and errand, he 
was greeted with a "God bless you, come in!" 
which fixed his lot for life. After almost three 
years of study and preparation, he was ordained 
deacon, in May 1798, by Bishop Provoost of New 
York. 

His first sphere of labour was in the western 
parts of the diocese of New York. Here he was 
f f 2 



330 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

employed as a domestic missionary upon the out- 
skirts of civilised life. Over that district, where 
within a few years afterwards large and prosperous 
towns abounded, the mighty forest then stretched, 
and its only inhabitants were the emigrant villagers 
who were busy in settling these outposts of society. 
Amongst them the young evangelist laboured with 
his whole heart, thinking nothing of the many toils 
and privations which such a mode of life entailed. 
With these he was soon familiar. As he travelled 
to his own sphere of labour, he fell in with a bro- 
ther missionary, afterwards known and highly ho- 
noured. He was living; in " a cabin built of unhewn 
logs, with scarcely a pane of glass to let in light 
sufficient to read his Bible : and even this was not 
his own nor long allowed for his use." Chase ar- 
rived at the moment of such a dispossession, and as- 
sisted him to carry his articles of crockery to a new 
abode, " holding one handle of the basket as they 
walked the road talking of the things pertaining to 
the kingdom of God," whilst they bore all his sub- 
stance into the little one-roomed cabin, the rude door 
of which hung creaking on its wooden hinges. This 
man was " the founder of the Church in the Otsego 
country; 5 ' and it was at the cost of such self-denial 
that the Gospel was planted in the west. 

Into these labours Chase entered heartily; and 
as his work was greatly blessed by God, he had the 
joy of seeing several nourishing congregations ga- 
thered by his hands into settled parishes. In this 



CHASE IN NEW ORLEANS. 331 

neighbourhood he remained some years, until the need 
of a milder climate for his wife sent him southward, 
and, at the advice of his bishop, he settled at New 
Orleans, near the delta of the Mississippi river. 
Here, where no minister of the reformed communion 
had yet appeared, he formed another parish ; and, 
after six years' labour, returned to New England, 
and was, for six more, rector of a church at Hartford 
in Connecticut. In this parish he was greatly be- 
loved : but, amidst all the enjoyments of civilised 
society, his thoughts would often wander to the de- 
solate districts of the West; to the lonely " clearing," 
and to the growing villages where the name of Christ 
was daily more and more forgotten ; he thought 
upon his own labours in time past until his heart 
yearned to be again employed in that high and holy 
enterprise ; and accordingly, in 1817, he set out once 
more upon his missionary work. 

Since the days of his former labours in the back 
districts of New York, the mighty tide of civilised 
life had swept on far to the west. His former deso- 
late stations were now populous towns, and the early 
seed which he had scattered in the waste had ripened 
into a harvest ; for through his labours, the institu- 
tions and influence of Christianity had healed the 
spring-head of social life amongst the earliest settlers 
before they had swelled into an irreligious multitude. 

As he retraced his steps over his old sphere of 
duty, he marked the changes, which he thus re- 
cords : — "I remember these busy villages one dreary 



SS2 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

salt marsh ; except two or three cabins for boiling salt 
— most unsightly and uncomfortable, because only ten- 
anted in winter — there were no appearances of civi- 
lised men." 1 " Where," he asked of one of his old 
flock, " was the cabin in which I baptised your fa- 
mily ?" " I will shew you," said he, taking his hat 
and a great key, " but we must stop at the church 
as we go along." And so they did. There it stood 
where the tall trees so lately occupied the ground. 
It was a beautiful, well-finished edifice. " This is 
the tree which you planted ; may it bear fruit accept- 
able to the heavenly Husbandman !" The site of 
the old cabin was found occupied by the " bustle of 
business ; coaches passing, warehouses on each side 
lofty and well supplied, streets paved, and side-walks 
nagged." Such is the rapid upgrowth of civilised 
life in the ancient domain of the western forest. 

To the difficulties and the blessing of planting 
the Church in the waste, the heart of Chase was still 
drawn, and he sought, therefore, his new field of 
labour in yet remoter districts. He passed on to the 
state of Ohio, where the straggling villages of the 
distant settler were beginning to stud the long un- 
broken forest. All his soul was in his work, and 
again he was greatly prospered in it. One by one 
other clergymen came to his aid ; parishes were 
organised, and in the very year after his coming 
amongst them, the new diocese of Ohio was organ- 

1 Bishop Chase's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 53. 



CONSECRATION OF BISHOP CHASE. 

ised. At its second diocesan convention, he who 
had brought to them the message of salvation was, 
by the votes of both laity and clergy, elected as 
their bishop. In February 1819 he was consecrated 
in the town of Philadelphia by the good old Bishop 
White, assisted by Bishops Hobart, Kemp, and 
Croes, and entered directly on his work. Anxiously 
did the new bishop watch over his rising diocese : 
he was still in heart w'hat he had ever been ; and 
though now a ruler of Christ's Church, he was as 
of old a devoted missionary, constantly engaged in 
seeking to carry on, in every direction, the work in 
which he had so diligently laboured. 

In effecting this he spared himself no exertion. 
His diocesan labours involved " vast distances of 
journeyings on horseback, under the burning sun 
and pelting rain, through the mud and amid the 
beech-roots, over log bridges and through swollen 
streams." It was no wonder that he reached the 
end of his circuit of " 1279 miles on horseback 
with his constitution impaired and his voice almost 
gone." 1 Fresh cares met him at the threshold of his 
home. " Three parishes were to be supplied," (lay 
readers being often his only substitute during his ne- 
cessary absence,) " two of them nearly fifteen miles 
distant from his residence." In spite of close eco- 
nomy, there was within doors " but a poor prospect 
for the coming winter ;" with a sickly wife, and this 

1 Bishop Chase's Reminiscences, p. 192. 



334 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

press of episcopal and pastoral care, " there was not 
a dollar left, after satisfying the hired man for the 
past, wherewithal to engage him for the future ; and 
as for the making promises when there was no pro- 
spect of making payment, such had ever been re- 
garded as a sin. The hired man was then, from 
a principle of duty, discharged. The result was 
inevitable ;" the bishop " must do what the man 
would, if retained, have done ; i. e. thrash the grain, 
haul and cut the wood, build the fires, and feed the 
stock." 

With such anxieties would mingle doubts whe- 
ther he had done rightly in accepting the arduous 
trust of such an episcopate. But these dark clouds 
seldom settled on his mind. They are commonly 
dispersed by active exertion, and Bishop Chase was 
always active. Wherever an opening appeared, he 
was ready to attend, to shew the fair front of the 
Church's goodly order, and plant the standard of his 
Master ; and for this work his zeal and earnestness 
fitted him remarkably. 

His journey, at the call of Samuel Gunn, is an 
example of his labours ; for such calls were con- 
tinually arising. In these cases the ground w T as hap- 
pily prepared, and the bishop's main work was to 
foster the w T eak beginnings of the apostolical com- 
munion, and to provide pastors for its ministry. But 
he did not confine himself to these more favoured 
spots ; all through his diocese, wherever the flow of 
civilised life carried the settler from the means of 



bishop chase's labours. 835 

grace, there was turned the attention of the bishop, 
and there, if it was possible, was soon seen his fatherly 
presence. In the year 1820 these objects took him 
on horseback through his diocese (carriage-roads not 
having yet been made), a distance of almost 1300 
miles. 

But all his personal energy could not supply the 
want of instruments. To " ordain elders in every 
district" was his earnest desire. To commit the flock 
to a regular ministry, who should daily cement and 
carry on to perfectness the goodly building, the foun- 
dations of which he, as a wise master-builder, had 
laid, — this was the longing of Bishop Chase's heart. 
The want was pressing, and weighed like a heavy 
burden on his soul. He saw " the whole community 
of those western settlements sinking fast in ignorance 
and its never-failing attendants, vice and fanaticism. 
Our own Church," he declares, " is like a discom- 
fited army seeking for strange food in forbidden 
fields, or sitting in solitary groups by the way-side 
fainting, famishing, and dying. . . . No missionaries 
make their appearance. . . . Those who transiently 
visit us pass like meteors, leaving behind little or 
no salutary effect." 1 Fixed and settled pastors were 
what the people required. 

But the work of the ministry amongst the wild 
and straggling settlers of the west required peculiar 
gifts and habits. Clergy who had been accustomed 

1 Reminiscences. 



336 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

to labour in more civilised districts were in a great 
measure unfitted for the charge; and the bishop saw, 
therefore, the necessity of founding a college in his 
own diocese to prepare proper instruments for this 
peculiar service. He laid his plans before his dio- 
cesan convention, and with their concurrence resolved 
to visit England, and collect subscriptions for the 
endowment of his college. In urging his cause here, 
he had not only the general claim of spiritual rela- 
tionship to which the Church of the mother country 
has ever gladly answered, but a further title to assist- 
ance in the fact, that about one-third of all the popu- 
lation of his diocese were British emigrants. Dif- 
ficulties of various kinds opposed his resolution. He 
left behind him a dying son ; his resources would 
not prudently warrant the excursion ; and the bulk 
of Churchmen east of the Alleghany mountains dis- 
couraged, whilst some openly opposed, his under- 
taking. All this made his heart ache, but it could 
not turn back his steps. After appointing a day for 
fasting and prayer in his own diocese, and seeking 
the intercession of the Church throughout the west, 
he sailed for England in October 1823; and there, 
after bravely making head for a season against a re- 
petition of the same difficulties which had often met 
him in America, he collected more than six thousand 
pounds for his noble object. This enabled him, on 
his return, to purchase 8000 acres of good land, and 
begin to build a college and village, to which, in 
remembrance of two of his most active friends in 



KENYON COLLEGE. 337 

England, he gave respectively the names of Kenyon 
and Gambier. 

In erecting these, all the bishop's energy of cha- 
racter was seen. Not content with undertaking the 
office of post-master, that he might have the privilege 
of franking the multitude of letters which his enter- 
prise required him to circulate, he acted as chief 
builder also. " He rises," 1 says his friend and co- 
adjutor, " at three every morning, and is engaged 
till night in superintending the workmen on the col- 
lege buildings." The results were commensurate 
with these exertions. The college was soon in full 
operation. w Within two years from the time when 
the lowest story was yet incomplete, and tall trees 
covered the face of the ground, whilst the students 
occupied temporary wooden houses, in which the 
frost of winter and the heat of summer alternately 
predominated, and the laborious bishop inhabited a 
little cabin of rough logs, the interstices of which 
were filled with clay, — the massive stone walls of 
the college, four feet thick and four stories in height, 
lifted themselves almost to the elevation of the sur- 
rounding woods, and a tall steeple indicated its situa- 
tion to the distant wanderer." Around it also all 
was changed. The clearing had proceeded rapidly; 
" several hundred acres of rich land supplied grain 
in abundance, and pasture for numerous cattle. A 
printer inhabited the bishop's former domicile, and 
published a religious newspaper, denominated the 
1 America and the American Church, p. 26. 
G G 



338 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

' Gambier Observer ;' while the students were in 
part provided with commodious dwellings, and in 
part supplied with lodgings in the college beneath 
the same roof with the bishop and the professors." 

Of these students, many were destined for the 
different walks of ordinary life ; but a considerable 
number also were here trained, under the bishop's 
eye, for the peculiar services of a far-western clergy- 
man. To these they were here accustomed even 
during the time of their college-life; and they there- 
fore entered upon the discharge of their ministry 
with the habits already formed which they after- 
wards needed. They maintained Sunday - schools, 
and in other ways supplied the religious wants of 
the settlers within a circuit of some miles around 
the college. We may follow one of them 1 in his 
accustomed labours. " We rise early (on a sum- 
mer morning), and sally forth with a few books 
and some frugal provision for the day. We proceed 
about half a mile through the noble aboriginal 
forest, the tall and straight trees appearing like pil- 
lars in a vast Gothic cathedral. The timber con- 
sists of oak, hickory, sugar-maple, sycamore, walnut, 
poplar, and chestnut, and the wild vine hangs from 
the branches in graceful festoons. Occasionally we 
hear the song of birds, but less frequently than in 
England. Generally deep silence prevails, and pre- 
pares the mind for serious contemplation. We soon 
arrive at a small clearing, where a cabin built of 
1 America and the American Church, p. 35, &c. 



A SUNDAY IN THE FOREST. 339 

rough logs indicates the residence of a family. Around 
the cabin are several acres upon which gigantic trees 
are yet standing, but perfectly deadened by the ope- 
ration called * girdling.' Their bark has chiefly fallen 
off, and the gaunt white limbs appear dreary, though 
majestic, in decay. Upon the abundant grass which 
has sprung up since the rays of the sun were admit- 
ted to the soil, a number of cattle are feeding, and 
the tinkling of their bells is almost the only sound 
which strikes the ear. We climb over the fence of 
split rails piled in a zigzag form, cross the pasture, 
and are again in the deep forest. The surface of the 
ground is of an undulating character, while our path- 
way carries us by a log-hut surrounded by a small 
clearing. After an hour we arrive at a rudely con- 
structed saw-mill erected on a small stream of water. 
The miller is seated at his cabin-door in his Sunday 
clothes, and is reading a religious book which we 
have lent him before. We now talk to him ; his in- 
terest in the Church is growing, and he offers us his 
horse for our future expeditions ; we accept it, and pro- 
ceed with its assistance on our course. After another 
hour we reach a village of log-cottages, at the end of 
which is a school-room, around which a temporary 
arbour is constructed, covered with fresh boughs. 
In this the children of the neighbours soon gather 
round us, and with them often come their friends 
and parents. When a goodly company is thus as- 
sembled, a hymn is given out and sung ; then all 
kneel for prayer, and a large portion of the Church- 



340 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

service is repeated from memory, from a tender re- 
gard to the prejudices of many who, until they have 
learned a better lesson, would turn away if they were 
told that they listened to the Church's voice. Then, 
under the sanction of the bishop, a few words of ex- 
hortation are added where the student is a candidate 
for holy orders. We then instruct the children, and, 
having finished this, set out upon our journey home- 
ward." 

The reception of these messengers of peace was 
widely various. In all cases, indeed, they appear to 
have received from the settlers that hospitality which 
is the uniform accompaniment of imperfect civili- 
sation. But while they were welcomed by some as 
spiritual guides, by others they and their objects were 
looked at with the most watchful suspicion. Thus 
one backwood farmer received gladly the wandering 
students, and lavished upon their reception all the 
stores of his rude hospitality ; but when he found that 
they were inhabitants of Gambier, and emissaries of 
Kenyon College, his countenance fell, and, with the 
sincerity of a backwood freeman, he at once ex- 
pressed his apprehensions of such visitants. 1 " I 
have fought the British, he told them, in the revolu- 
tionary war, and I have again encountered them in 
the last war, and I know something of their cha- 
racter. I know that they would not contribute so 
many thousand pounds to build a college in Ohio 
without some sinister object. I am, therefore, con- 

1 Caswall's America and the American Church, p. 45. 



KENYON-COLLEGE STUDENTS. 341 

vinced that Bishop Chase is an agent employed by 
them to introduce British domination here. The 
college is in fact a fortress ; all you students are 
British soldiers in disguise ; and when you think you 
have the opportunity, you will throw off the mask 
and proclaim the King of England." No explana- 
tion or assurance could dispel the scruples of the old 
man, who was a Calvinistic Anabaptist in religion, 
and probably a fiery democrat in politics. 

At other times this is the narrative of their re- 
ception : " We have scarcely left the village, when 
a blacksmith runs after us and requests us to stop. 
He tells us that he has felt deeply interested in the 
services, that he desires more information, and that 
he wishes us always to dine with him on Sundays in 
future. We accordingly return to his cabin ; and his 
wife sets before us a plentiful repast of chickens, po- 
tatoes, hot bread, apple-pies, and milk. After some 
profitable conversation, we depart, and at about 
three o'clock arrive at the miller's house, almost 
overcome by the excessive heat. When we have 
somewhat recovered from our fatigue, we proceed to 
a spot on the banks of the stream where the grass 
is smooth and the thick foliage produces a com- 
parative coolness. Here we find about one hundred 
persons collected in the hope of receiving from us 
some religious instruction. We conduct the service 
much in the same way as in the morning. The ef- 
fect of the singing in the open air is striking and 
peculiar ; and the prayers of our liturgy are no less 
g g 2 



342 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

sublime in the forests of Ohio than in the conse- 
crated and time-honoured minsters of York or Can- 
terbury." 1 

In such natural sanctuaries are sometimes cele- 
brated all the rites of our most holy faith. One 
such in Delaware County, Ohio, is thus described 
by an eye-witness: " The place of worship was a 
beautiful orchard, where the abundant blossoms of 
the apple and the peach filled the air with their 
delicious odour. A table for the Communion was 
placed on the green grass, and covered with a 
cloth of snowy whiteness. Adjoining the rustic 
altar, a little stand was erected for the clergyman, 
and a number of benches were provided for the 
congregation. A large number attended, and be- 
haved with the strictest propriety. Besides the ser- 
vice for the day, baptism was administered by the 
missionary to three or four adults, a stirring extem- 
pore sermon was delivered, and the Lord's Supper 
completed the solemnities/' 2 

But to return to our Kenyon- College students, 
whom we must follow home : " The service con- 
cluded, we return on foot ; and as we approach the 
college with weary steps, the fire- flies glisten in the in- 
creasing darkness. We arrive at our rooms fatigued 
in body, but refreshed in mind, and encouraged to 
new efforts." 

By such exertions as these the Church was widely 

1 America and American Church, p. 38. 

2 Caswall, p. 280. 



DOMESTIC MISSIONS. 343 

spread throughout the West. From them the sound 
of the Gospel reached the settler's family ; by them, 
under God's blessing, was formed first the straggling 
parish, and afterwards the ill-endowed but laborious 
diocese, extending over its fifty thousand square 
miles, and carrying into the waste the germ of civili- 
sation and of order. 

The want of funds proved the great hindrance 
to these domestic missions. Years must commonly 
pass before the spiritual labourer saw gathered 
round him a flock sufficient to maintain him in his 
work. This, therefore, was one great demand of 
Christian charity, and efforts were made in various 
places to respond to it. Thus in Philadelphia, as 
early as 1812, there was a movement in this direc- 
tion begun by the zeal and earnestness of Jackson 
Kemper, then a deacon there. In New York also, 
which was soon to be the centre of the Christian cha- 
rity of North America, Bishop Hobart took, in 1813, 
an important step in the same cause. He proposed 
and carried through a canon which made it impera- 
tive on every congregation in the diocese once a year 
to collect funds for this specific object. This was the 
beginning of great things. The cause grew under 
his hand, and the noble aspect it assumed a few 
years later may be traced to this as its beginning. 

But this was not the only species of domestic 
missions which engaged his attention. There was 
another race of men who had the strongest claims 
on all Americans ; these soon attracted the attention 



344 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the Bishop of New York. In surveying the 
teeming multitudes of European origin who now 
fill the shores of the great western continent, the 
question often recurs sadly to the mind, Where 
are those who were its former tenants ? where are 
the red men, to whom the God of heaven had ap- 
portioned out by lot the hunting-grounds and forests 
on whose site now stand the busy cities of the west? 
The answer is a mournful one to every thoughtful 
mind. Scarcely one of them remains. War, trea- 
chery, famine, and, above all, diseases of European 
growth, have mowed down whole nations of In- 
dians, until they are not upon the face of the earth. 
A few remain ; and as these have rarely become 
mingled with their white invaders, they have been 
continually beaten back farther and farther into the 
interior, as the tide of civilised life gradually rose 
upon them. 

At length the government of the United States 
has taken upon itself to confer titles to their land, 
and to remove them to certain " reserves," of which 
it guarantees to them the undisturbed possession. 
The whole subject must give rise to bitter reflec- 
tions. But this surely is the first question which rises 
on the mind, What has the Church of Christ done 
for this unhappy race ? Has it, according to its 
chartered rights, received into itself these children 
of the human family, and, by its greater boons of 
heavenly light and everlasting life, turned all their 
other losses into gain ? The answer to this question 



ELEAZER WILLIAMS. 345 

also involves a catalogue of fearful facts. It is there- 
fore with peculiar pleasure that we light here and 
there upon plans and efforts devised in the spirit of 
those times when apostles bore to men of every blood 
the message of salvation. To some such we are led 
in surveying the course of Bishop Hobart's epis- 
copate. 

In the year 1815 his attention was called to the 
condition of a portion of the tribe of the Iroquois, 
distinguished as the Oneidas, who, to the number of 
four thousand, were settled on some " reserved " 
lands known by the name of " the Oneida country/' 
His first object was to find a proper instrument for 
carrying out amongst them his purposes of Christian 
love. His search was not in vain; he was guided 
to one of their own blood who had received a Chris- 
tian education, and could speak to them of the name 
of Jesus in the beloved accents of their fathers' 
tongue, 

The history of Eleazer Williams, whom he now 
sent to them, is full of that romance by which Indian 
life is so frequently distinguished. Amongst the last 
inroads of the Indian tribes upon the white men's 
settlements, was one against the frontier village of 
Deerfield in Connecticut. It proved so far success- 
ful that the red men returned to their trackless for- 
ests loaded with all kinds of booty. Amongst their 
various prey they carried off the wife and children 
of the rector of the village, the Rev. Mr. Williams, 
who was absent at the time. He returned home to 



346 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

learn the full extent of his calamity ; and, with a 
bleeding heart, set out at once to seek for those with 
whom his life was thus bound up. Years passed 
over him in his fruitless and heart-sickening toil ; 
but still he desisted not until he was at last guided 
to their haunt in the distant prairie. But when he 
had found them, all would not return. One daughter 
of his house had wedded an Indian chief, and she 
refused to leave the land of her adoption. Little 
could the pious father forecast the blessing which 
was thus in store for his de spoilers : for from this 
marriage sprung, amongst others, the son who was 
now the bearer of the message of salvation to his 
red brethren of the forest. He went forth as cate- 
chist and schoolmaster, taking with him portions 
of the Gospels and the Psalms, which, through the 
bishop's care, had been translated into their native 
dialect. 

The blessing of God rested on his labours ; and 
some of their fruits may be found marked in the 
following touching words addressed to the bishop 
three years afterwards, in the name of his brethren, 
by a young Indian communicant : — 

" Right Rev. Father, — We salute you in the 
name of the ever-adorable, ever-blessed, and ever- 
lasting sovereign Lord of the universe ; we acknow- 
ledge the great and almighty Being as our Creator, 
Preserver, and constant Benefactor. 

" Right Rev. Father, — We rejoice that we now, 
with one heart and mind, would express our gra- 



INDIAN ADDRESS TO BP. HOBART. 347 

titude and thanksgiving to our great and venerable 
father for the favour which he has bestowed upon 
this nation, viz., in sending brother Williams among 
us to instruct us in the religion of the blessed Jesus. 
When he first came to us we hailed him as our 
friend, our brother, and our guide in spiritual things, 
and he shall remain in our hearts and minds as long 
as he shall teach us the w T ays of the great Spirit 
above. 

" Right Rev. Father, — -We rejoice to say, that 
by sending brother Williams among us a great light 
has risen upon us ; we see now that the Christian 
religion is intended for the good of the Indians as 
well as the white people ; we see it and do feel it, 
that the religion of the Gospel will make us happy 
in this and in the world to come. We now- profess 
it outwardly, and we hope, by the grace of God, 
that some of us have professed it inwardly. May 
it ever remain in our hearts, and we be enabled by 
the Spirit of the Eternal One to practise the great 
duties which it points out to us. 

" Right Rev. Father, — Agreeable to vour re- 
quest, we have treated our brother with that atten- 
tion and kindness which you required of us ; we 
have assisted him all that was in our power as to his 
support : but you know well that we are poor our- 
selves, and we cannot do a great deal. Though our 
brother has lived very poor since he came among 
us, but he is patient and makes no complaint, we 
pity him, because we love him as we do ourselves. 



348 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

We wish to do something for his support, but this 
is impossible for us to do at present, as we have 
lately raised between three and four thousand dollars 
to enable us to build a little chapel. 

" Right Rev. Father, — We entreat and beseech 
you not to neglect us. We hope the Christian peo- 
ple in New York will help us all that is in their 
power. We hope our brother will by no means be 
withdrawn from us. If this should take place, the 
cause of religion will die among us, immorality and 
wickedness will prevail. 

" Right Rev. Father, — As {he head and father 
of the holy and apostolical Church in this state, we 
entreat you to take a special charge of us. We are 
ignorant, mean, poor, and need your assistance. 
Come, venerable father, and visit your children, and 
warm their hearts by your presence in the things 
which belong to their everlasting peace. May the 
great Head of the Church whom you serve be with 
you, and His blessing ever remain with you ! 

" We, venerable father, remain your dutiful 
children." 

The bishop's answer breathes an apostolic spi- 
rit : — 

" My children, — I have received your letter by 
your brother and teacher, Eleazer Williams, and 
return your affectionate and Christian salutation, 
praying that grace, mercy, and peace from God the 
Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, may be 
with you. 



bp. hobart's address to the oneidas. 349 

" My children, — I rejoice to hear of your faith 
in the one living and true God, and in His Son Jesus 
Christ, whom He has sent, whom to know is life 
eternal ; and I pray that, by the Holy Spirit of 
God, you may be kept stedfast in this faith, and 
may walk worthy of Him who hath called you out 
of darkness into His marvellous light. 

" My children, — It is true, as you say, that the 
Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is in- 
tended for Indians as well as white people. For the 
great Father of all hath made of one blood all the 
nations of the earth ; and hath sent His Son Jesus 
Christ to teach them all, and to die for them all, that 
they may be redeemed from the power of sin, and 
brought to the acknowledgment of the truth, and to 
the service of the living God. 

" My children, — It is true, as you say, that the 
religion of the Gospel will make you happy in this 
world, as well as in the world to come ; and I join in 
your prayer, that you may profess it inwardly as well 
as outwardly ; that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
you may be transformed by the renewing of your 
minds, and acquire holy tempers, and practise the 
holy duties which the Gospel enjoins. And for this 
purpose I beseech you to attend to the instructions of 
your faithful teacher and brother, Eleazer Williams ; 
to unite with him in the holy prayers of our apos- 
tolic Church, which he has translated into your own 
language ; to listen with reverence to the Divine 
word which he reads to you ; to receive, as through 

H H 



350 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

grace you may be qualified, and may have an oppor- 
tunity, the sacraments and ordinances of the Church; 
and at all times, and in all places, to lift up your 
hearts in supplication to the Father of your spirits, 
who always and every where hears and sees you, 
for pardon and grace, to comfort, to teach, and to 
sanctify you, through your divine Mediator, Jesus 
Christ. 

" My children, — Let me exhort you diligently 
to labour to get your living by cultivating the earth, 
or by some other lawful calling ; you will thus pro- 
mote your worldly comfort, you will be more re- 
spected among your white brethren, and more united 
and strong among yourselves. And when you are 
thus engaged, you will be saved from many tempta- 
tions ; and you will prove yourselves to be good 
disciples of Him, who, by His inspired apostle, has 
enjoined, that while we are ' fervent in spirit,' we 
be ' not slothful in business.' 

" My children, — Continue to respect and to love 
your brother and teacher, Eleazer Williams, and to 
treat him kindly ; for he loves you, and is desirous 
to devote himself to your service ; that, by God's 
grace, he may be instrumental in making you happy 
here and hereafter. It is my wish that he may re- 
main with you, and may be your spiritual guide and 
instructor. 

" My children, — I rejoice to hear that your 
brethren, the Onondagas, are desirous of knowing 
the words of truth and salvation. I hope you will 



bp. hobart's visit to the oneidas. 351 

not complain if your teacher, Eleazer Williams, 
sometimes visits them, to lead them in that wav to 
eternal life, which, from God's word, he has pointed 
out to you. Freely you have received, you should 
freely give ; and being made partakers of the grace 
of God through Jesus Christ, you should be desirous 
that ail your red brethren may enjoy the same pre- 
cious gift. 

" My children,— It is my purpose, if the Lord 
will, to come and see you next summer ; and I hope 
to find you, as good Christians, denying ungodliness 
and worldly lusts, and living righteously, soberly, and 
godly in this present world. I shall have you in 
my heart, and shall remember you in my prayers ; 
for you are part of my charge, of that flock for whom 
the Son of God gave Himself even unto the death 
upon the cross, and whom He commanded His mi- 
nisters to seek and to gather unto His fold, that 
through Him they might be saved for ever. 

" My children, — May God be with you and 
bless you. 

(Signed) John Henry Hob art, 

Bishop of the Prot. Episc. Church in 
the state of New York. 
Dated at New York, the 1st day 
of February, in the year of 
our Lord 1818, and in the 
seventh year of my conse- 
cration.' ' 

From this promised visit no other engagements 
could divert him. In the following summer he pene- 



352 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

trated to the Indian reserves. The scene he wit- 
nessed filled him with deeper interest for his red 
children. 

Their wide-extended domains were lying in com- 
mon, the property of the tribe, not of individuals ; 
some little of it cultivated, more in open pasture, 
but most in its state of native wildness, and reserved 
for hunting-ground. Through these forests, paths 
there were many, but roads none ; and the generally 
rude, though sometimes neat and rustic dwellings of 
these sons of the forest, lay scattered in wild but 
picturesque confusion — some upon gentle eminences, 
others in rich valleys ; some open to the sun, others 
embosomed in shade ; and exhibiting here and there 
traces of a taste for natural scenery which recom- 
mended them still further (at least as objects of in- 
teresting inquiry) to such a lover of nature as Bishop 
Hobart. Among those who flocked around him on 
this occasion, as he stood in the recesses of their 
primeval forests, was one aged Mohawk warrior, 
who, amid his heathen brethren, had for half a cen- 
tury held fast by that holy faith in which he had 
been instructed and baptised by a missionary from 
the society in England, while these states were still 
colonies. Through the catechist, as interpreter, he 
now recounted the event in the figurative language 
of these children of nature, and pointed out to his 
admiring auditor, with as much feeling as belongs 
to that imperturbable race, the very spot where this 
early missionary had been accustomed to assemble 



INDIAN CONVERTS. 353 

them, and preach to a congregation which, as it 
afterwards appeared, had listened to him rather from 
curiosity than conviction. 

It was, as the bishop in conversation described 
it, an open glade in the forest, with a few scattered 
oaks still vigorous and spreading ; and within view, 
as if to perpetuate the association, now arose the 
tower of the neat rustic church, which the Christian 
party among them had recently erected. To his 
next convention Bishop Hobart gave his own ac- 
count of this visit to the forest and its red inha- 
bitants : — 

" It is a subject of congratulation, that our Church 
has resumed the labours which, for a long period be- 
fore the revolutionary war, the society in England 
for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts directed 
to the religious instruction of the Indian tribes. 
Those labours were not wholly unsuccessful ; for on 
my recent visit to the Oneidas, I saw an ancient 
Mohawk, who, firm in the faith of the gospel, and 
adorning his profession by an exemplary life, is in- 
debted, under the Divine blessing, for his Christian 
principles and hopes to the missionaries of that vene- 
rable society. The exertions more recently made for 
the conversion of the Indian tribes have not been 
so successful, partly because not united with efforts 
to introduce among them those arts of civilisation 
without which the gospel can neither be understood 
nor valued ; but principally because religious instruc- 
tion was conveyed through the imperfect medium of 
h h 2 



354 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

interpreters, by those unacquainted with their dispo- 
sitions and habits, and in whom they were not dis- 
posed to place the same confidence as in those who 
are connected with them by the powerful ties of lan- 
guage, of manners, and of kindred. The religious 
instructor of the Oneidas employed by our Church 
enjoys all these advantages. Being of Indian extrac- 
tion, and acquainted with their language, dispositions, 
and customs, and devoting himself unremittingly to 
their spiritual and temporal welfare, he enjoys their 
full confidence, while the education which he has re- 
ceived has increased his qualifications as their guide 
in the faith and precepts of the gospel. Mr. Eleazer 
Williams, at the earnest request of the Oneida chiefs, 
was licensed by me about two years since, as their 
lay reader, catechist, and schoolmaster. Educated 
in a different communion, he connected himself with 
our Church from conviction, and appears warmly 
attached to her doctrines, her apostolic ministry, and 
her worship. Soon after he commenced his labours 
among the Oneidas, the Pagan party solemnly pro- 
fessed the Christian faith. Mr. Williams repeatedly 
explained to them, in councils which they held for this 
purpose, the evidences of the divine origin of Chris- 
tianity, and its doctrines, institutions, and precepts. 
" He combated their objections, patiently answered 
their inquiries, and was finally, through the Divine 
blessing, successful in satisfying their doubts. Soon 
after their conversion, they appropriated, in conjunc- 
tion with the old Christian party, the proceeds of the 



INDIAN CONVERTS. 355 

sale of some of their lands to the erection of a hand- 
some edifice for divine worship, which will be shortly 
completed. 

" In the work of their spiritual instruction, the 
Book of Common Prayer, a principal part of which 
has been translated for their use, proves a powerful 
auxiliary. Its simple and affecting exhibition of the 
truths of redemption is calculated to interest their 
hearts, while it informs their understanding ; and its 
decent and significant rites contribute to fix their 
attention in the exercises of worship. They are par- 
ticularly gratified with having parts assigned them in 
the service, and repeat the responses with great pro- 
priety and devotion. On my visit to them, several 
hundred assembled for worship; those who could 
read were furnished with books, and they uttered 
the confessions of the liturgy, responded its suppli- 
cations, and chanted its hymns of praise, with a re- 
verence and fervour which powerfully interested the 
feelings of those who witnessed the solemnity. They 
listened to my address to them, interpreted by Mr. 
Williams, with so much solicitous attention, they 
received the laying on of hands with such grateful 
humility, and participated in the symbols of their 
Saviour's love with such tears of penitential devo- 
tion, that the impression which the scene made on 
my mind will never be effaced. Nor was this the 
excitement of the moment, or the ebullition of enthu- 
siasm. The eighty-nine who were confirmed had 
been well instructed by Mr. Williams ; and none 



356 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

were permitted to approach the communion whose 
lives did not correspond with their Christian profes- 
sions. The numbers of those who assembled for 
worship, and partook of the ordinances, would have 
been greater, but from the absence of many of them 
at an Indian council at Buffalo. 

" I have admitted Mr. Williams as a candidate for 
orders, on the recommendation of the standing com- 
mittee ; and look forward to his increased influence 
and usefulness, should he be invested with the office 
of the ministry. 

M There is a prospect of his having, some time 
hence, a powerful auxiliary in a young Indian, the 
son of the head warrior of the Onondagas, who was 
killed at the battle of Chippewa, and who, amiable 
and pious in his dispositions, and sprightly and vigo- 
rous in his intellectual powers, is earnestly desirous 
of receiving an education to prepare him for the 
ministry among his countrymen. I trust that means 
will be devised for accomplishing his wishes. We 
ought never to forget that the salvation of the gos- 
pel is designed for all the human race ; and that the 
same mercy which applies comfort to our wounded 
consciences, the same grace which purifies and soothes 
our corrupt and troubled hearts, and the same hope 
of immortality which fills us with peace and joy, can 
exert their benign and celestial influence on the hum- 
ble Indian." 



CHAPTER XL 

from 1820 to 1836. 

American education — Temper of American youth — Jealousy of high 
education — Absence of theological training — Foundation of the 
General Theological Seminary — Its success — Bishop Hobart's con- 
nexion with it— His death— And character — Bishop B.T. Onder- 
donk succeeds — Increase of the episcopate — Bishops Bavenscroft 
and Ives of North Carolina — Bishop Meade of Virginia — AndH. U. 
Onderdcnk, assistant bishop of Pennsylvania — Bishop Chase of 
Ohio — Resigns his bishopric— Consecrations of Bishops MTlvaine 
of Ohio, Hopkins of Vermont, Smith of Kentucky, and Doane of 
New Jersey — Change of feeling as to the episcopate — Convention 
of 1835 — Bishop Chase of Illinois — Division of dioceses — New or- 
ganisation of missionary board — The missionary bishop — Bishop 
Kemper consecrated — Success of the new plan — Subsequent growth 
of the Church — Bishop White's illness — Death and character. 

Amidst the various subjects which occupied the mind 
of Bishop Hobart, one had constantly recurred, 
None, indeed, more deeply concerned North Ame- 
rica than the influence of the Church on education. 
This, at present, is more widely spread and of a 
lower standard than in the older nations of Europe. 
Throughout the eastern states, reading, writing, ere- 

o ' o 7 o 7 O 

ography, and arithmetic, are almost universal ; and 
even some measure of classical attainment is by no 



S5S AMERICAN CHURCH. 

means rare. In New York, in 1832, out of a popu- 
lation of two millions, half a million, or one in four, 
were at school. 1 It is asserted, but without any 
grounds being given to justify the calculation, that 
of the whole population of the United States, one 
in five are under education. 2 In the slave-states of 
the south, the diffusion and character of education 
falls greatly lower than this level ; whilst in Ohio and 
some of the newer north-west states, lands for the 
support of education have been set aside from their 
first settlement ; and these bid fair, ere long, to rival 
the " empire" 3 state. But with all this wide spread 
of education, it nowhere reaches to the high measure 
of the Old World. For this there is as yet neither 
provision nor demand. This must be more or less the 
case where there are no classes born to hereditary 
wealth ; and this tendency is increased by the peculiar- 
ities of American character, which is eminently busy 
and practical ; urging men to acquire money, imme- 
diate influence, and direct results in all things. Even 
childhood is moulded by these feelings. M Boys are 
men before they are loosed from their leading-strings. 
They are educated in the belief that every man must 
be the architect of his own fortune. There is, to be 
sure, a limited class who look forward to the decease 
of parents as the commencement of an era in which 
they will have no duty to do but to enjoy the pro- 

1 Caswall's America, p. 197. 

2 J. S. Buckingham's America, vol. ii. p. 366. 

3 An American name for New York. 



EDUCATION. 359 

perty bequeathed to them ; but, as a class, it is too 
small to be considered in the estimate of national 
character. The great majority look forward to man- 
hood as the time to act, and anticipate it by juvenile 
participation in the events of busy life. Boys argue 
upon polemics, political economy, party politics, the 
mysteries of trade, the destinies of nations. Dreams 
of ambition or of wealth nerve the arm which drives 
the hoop. Toys are stock in trade ; barter is fallen 
into by instinct." 

This is an American estimate 1 of the character of 
boyhood there : and with this the highest measure of 
education is manifestly incompatible. It is valued 
only as it fits men to act successfully their immediate 
part in the busy scene before them. Whatever rises 
above this level is looked at rather with suspicion 
than good will. Like great wealth or distinctions of 
rank, it cannot harmonise entirely with republican 
institutions. It is the assertion of superiority. " The 
multitude in this country," says an address delivered 
in an eastern state to a collegiate institution, 2 " so 
far from favouring and honouring high learning and 
science, is rather prone to suspect and dislike it. It 
feareth that genius savoureth of aristocracy ! Besides, 
the multitude calleth itself a practical man. It asketh, 
what is the use ? It seeth no use but in that which 
leads to money or the material ends of life. It hath 

1 Extracted by J. S. Buckingham, vol. i. p. 170, from a lead- 
ing New York journal. 

2 Quoted in Caswall's American Church. 



360 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

no opinion of having dreamers and drones in society. 
It believeth, indeed, in railroads ; it thinketh well of 
steam ; and owneth that the new art of bleaching by 
chlorine is a prodigious improvement ; but it laughs 
at the profound researches into the laws of nature, 
out of which those very inventions grew ; and with 
still greater scorn it laughs at the votaries of the 
more spiritual forms of truth and beauty, which have 
no application to the palpable uses of life. Then, 
again, the influence of our reading public is not fa- 
vourable to high letters. It demands, it pays for, and 
respects, almost exclusively, a lower style of produc- 
tion ; and hence a natural influence to discourage 
higher labours." 

In such a state of feeling the best hope was in the 
institution of theological seminaries of a high caste. 
Though the clergy had too commonly been engrossed 
by the incessant claims of pastoral duty, yet amongst 
them there was the best chance of forming a set of 
thoughtful, highly cultivated minds : and if once the 
standard were raised any where, discontent with the 
general poverty of attainments would soon be widely 
felt. To these motives for exertion must be added 
the absolute deficiency of theological instruction. 
Hobart himself was trained in a Presbyterian col- 
lege : and while such a course of education might 
endanger the principles of weaker minds, it certainly 
deprived the stronger of the blessing of strict theo- 
logical instruction. To this want, therefore, his at- 
tention was early called : he longed to see such in- 



GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 361 

stitutions founded ; but his first care was, that their 
principles should be so firmly fixed as to pre- 
serve them from the passing influence of the day. 
They were to impart a character ; not to adopt that 
of others. For otherwise they would fail of their 
highest purpose, and instead of teaching the student 

" How patiently the yoke of thought to bear, 
Subtly to guide its finest threads along," 1 

they would soon degenerate, under another name, into 
the common run of ordinary schools. From fear of 
this, he opposed, at the cost of much misrepresen- 
tation, the earliest proposals for founding a general 
theological seminary ; though none felt more strongly 
the need of such an institution, or laboured more 
diligently in its formation, when the temper of the 
Church seemed to justify the undertaking. 

In the convention of 1817 this scheme was 
adopted; and in that of 1820, and in one specially 
held in 1821, it received its perfect form. The 
general seminary was established at New York ; it 
was placed under the control of the whole Church, 
her bishops being officially trustees, in common with 
a body elected by the several states from residents 
within their own borders. Each state chooses one 
trustee, and one more for every eight of its clergy ; 
and, besides these, it may elect one trustee for every 
two thousand dollars it contributes to the common 
fund, with a proviso that when one state already 

1 Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sketches. 
I I 



362 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

possesses five such trustees, its further contributions 
must amount to 10,000 dollars for an additional 
trustee. Thus founded, " the General Theological 
Seminary" soon struck its roots firmly in the soil. 
In 1836 eighty-six students were upon its books, at 
an annual expense of 24/. each. ] It has already 
greatly raised the standard of clerical attainments, 
and its future influence may be more momentous 
still. Already it has gathered to itself various im- 
portant endowments, and gives promise of assuming 
and maintaining something of that high character 
which for centuries the mother-country has identi- 
fied with the very names of her " two famous univer- 
sities." In 1841, though still greatly needing further 
exertions, it possessed twelve scholarships, endowed 
with sums varying from 450/. to 660/., and profes- 
sorships, for which endowments of 4,500/. and 5,6251. 
had been obtained. 2 It had received since its foun- 
dation, by voluntary contributions, the sum of 228,420 
dollars, or about 50,770/. ; its library at the close 
of 1837 numbered 6011, and in 1843, 7500 volumes; 
and, besides the additions made by benefactors, was 
increasing yearly from the interest of 6000 dollars 
held as a permanent investment for its benefit. 

It was mainly to Bishop Hobart that this insti- 
tution, so full of promise for America, owed its 
origin, but he scarcely lived to see it in active ope- 
ration. The convention of October 1829 filled up 

1 Caswall's America, p. 155. 

2 Appendix A. to Report of Convention of 1841. 



DEATH OF BISHOP HOBART. 363 

the requisite number of trustees, and in the Septem- 
ber of the following year he was taken to his rest. 
He died at his work at Auburn, whilst on the visi- 
tation of the western district of his diocese. Worn 
out by the combined labours of a pressing pastoral 
charge and an exhausting bishopric, he sunk upon 
the threshold of his 56th year. His memory will 
long endure in the grateful remembrance of the 
Churchmen of the west. He left an impression of 
his well-ordered zeal deeply traced upon many 
minds and many institutions round him. This he 
had the joy of witnessing before his dismissal. He 
was the centre to which men of active and high- 
principled exertion naturally turned. He lived long 
enough to survive the clamour which broke in so 
rudely upon his opening episcopate ; and whilst he 
never receded from a principle, so greatly did his 
straightforward honesty of character win on all men, 
that in a contested election of governor of his own 
state, it was commonly asserted, " that were Bishop 
Hobart to stand, he would be the only candidate 
who would carry the vote of both parties." 1 

In the next convention (Oct. 1832) Bishop B. T. 
Onderdonk, who had been consecrated two months 
after Bishop Hobart's death, took his place in the 
general council of the Church. The episcopate was 
greatly strengthened since the time when the conse- 
cration of Dr. Hobart was a matter of doubtful possi- 

1 M'Vickar, p. 485. 



364 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

bility. In 18£3 North Carolina was placed under the 
care of Bishop Ravenscroft. He administered that 
diocese in Hobart's spirit. " The situation of this 
southern country," he tells the Bishop of New York, 
" surrendered for the last forty or eighty years to 
the exclusive influence of dissenters, left me no al- 
ternative, but either to increase that influence by 
adopting half-way measures, or by a decided course 
to call into action what was left of predilection for 
her, and to rally her real friends around her." 1 
There were not wanting those who predicted failure 
from these efforts, which to them seemed premature. 
But the conclusion, says the bishop, justified his 
expectations. His course was far shorter than that 
of his friend and brother in authority. Since the 
convention of 1829 he, too, had been gathered in 
amongst the perfected; and in September 1831 Dr. 
L. S. Ives was consecrated in his room. Others 
too had been added to the apostolic college. Dr. 
Meade, as we have seen, had been appointed as- 
sistant-bishop of Virginia ; Dr. Stone, 2 after a two- 
years' vacancy, occupied the place of the late Bishop 
Kemp of Maryland ; whilst three years before, in 
Pennsylvania, Dr. H. U. Onderdonk had been asso- 
ciated with the aged Bishop White. His election had 
allayed a strife which threatened to molest the last 
years of the mild patriarch of the western Church, 
and the assistant-bishop strengthened with zeal and 

1 Letter to Bishop Hobart, — Dr. Berrian's Life, p. 366. 

2 Consecrated Oct. 1830. 



INCREASED NUMBER OF BISHOPS. 365 

judgment his venerable principal. Though now bear- 
ing the burden of eighty-four winters, Bishop White 
was still a constant attendant at the meeting of con- 
vention, and imparted to its counsels the wisdom and 
the meekness of his old experience. These were 
called for at this time by difficulties which had 
arisen in the state of Ohio. Dr. Philander Chase, 
whom we have followed through his missionary life 
to his consecration as its bishop and the founder of 
Kenyon College, now 7 desired, under trying circum- 
stances, to resign his bishopric. This had been 
made inseparable from the headship of the college, 
and between himself and its professors irreconcilable 
variance had arisen. After long debates, convention 
allowed his resignation, and proceeded to act on the 
choice of a successor, which his diocese had made. 
On the 31st of October, forty-six years (within two 
days) from the time of his embarking from the same 
city to receive consecration from the English arch- 
bishop, Bishop 'White laid his aged hands upon the 
heads of four more who were severed to bear on- 
ward their Master's witness. Dr. M'llvaine was 
consecrated Bishop of Ohio ; Dr. John H. Hopkins 
of Vermont, now parted from the eastern diocese ; 
Dr. B. B. Smith of Kentucky, which had been or- 
ganised three years before ; and Dr. G. W. Doane 
of the old diocese of New Jersey. " What a won- 
derful change," 1 says the aged bishop, " had he 

1 Notes to page 63 of Bishop White's Memorial, p. 266. 
i i 2 



366 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

lived to witness in reference to American episco- 
pacy ;" he who now thus peacefully filled up the 
vacant seats of rule, " remembered the ante-revolu- 
tionary times, when the press profusely emitted pam- 
phlet and newspaper disquisitions on the question 
whether an American bishop was to be endured, 
and when threats were thrown out, of throwing such 
a person, if sent, into the river." 

Still more important matters marked the next as- 
sembly of convention. It met in 1835 at the city of 
Philadelphia, and would have been marked amongst 
the synods of that Church, if by nothing else, yet by 
being the last at which the aged Bishop White was 
present. But besides this, enduring consequences re- 
sulted from its sittings. These appropriately opened 
with the readmission of Dr. Philander Chase to the 
upper house as Bishop of Illinois, which under his 
care had been organised as a diocese since the meet- 
ing of the last convention. During that interval he 
had been labouring as an indefatigable missionary in 
Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois: and now "a ve- 
teran bishop, a soldier of the cross, whom hardships 
never have discouraged, whom no difficulties seem 
to daunt, and who entered upon his new campaign 
with all the chivalry of thirty -five, was cordially wel- 
comed to his seat amongst the counsellors of the 
Church." 1 

Early in the session a committee was appointed 

1 Appendix to " Missionary Bishop," p. 37. 



MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 367 

to take into consideration such an alteration of the 
constitution as should allow of the division of any 
diocese which had outgrown the powers of one bi- 
shop. " The prosperous and powerful diocese of 
New York" gave occasion for this suggestion, and 
the canon adopted in committee has since become a 
part of the constitution, and under it New York was 
parted into the eastern and western diocese. This 
was scarcely arranged, when the whole missionary 
operations of the Church were brought into discus- 
sion. Since the year 1820 these had come under 
the consideration of convention ; before that time 
they had been left to the voluntary zeal of self- con- 
stituted societies ; but in that year " a board of mis- 
sions" was authoritatively organised. The consti- 
tution then formed was not, indeed, long retained. 
It was hastily adopted on the last day of the sitting 
of convention, and was quickly found to be as in- 
convenient in practice as it was undoubtedly unsound 
in principle, since the bishops of the Church were 
scarcely recognised in this their especial function. In 
1823, 1829, and 1832, it came again under review, 
until in 1835 it received its last alterations and per- 
manent organisation. 

The importance of this matter requires a more 
detailed relation of its progress, and this shall be 
mainly given in the words of those who conducted 
it, because these will bring more vividly before us 
the views and feelings which guided the framers of 
this new arrangement. 



368 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

The moral and religious state of the vast popu- 
lation which was springing up along the great valley 
of the Mississippi had grown into a matter of poli- 
tical as well as spiritual moment. The attention of 
the Church was loudly called to its condition. In 
a sermon preached at Brooklyn, 1 the suburbs of 
New York, in the year 1835, and published at the 
request of those who heard it, the preacher asks, 2 
" Can any Christian look without concern upon the 
movements at the west — the rush of foreign popu- 
lation, the rapid growth of cities and villages, and 
the astonishing rise in the value of land — without 
inquiring who is taking possession of this finest part 
of our country ? What are the habits, the intelligence, 
and the religion of the people ? Have they our sa- 
cred institutions 1 Are they an educated people ? 
Are they a religious people ? Will they carry with 
them the * ark of the covenant' into the wilderness ? 
Suppose, in answer to these questions, it should be 
told you, that they were coming to this country with- 
out the means of education or religious instruction, 
or if they have the latter, so closely connected with 
a foreign political power, and having so little rela- 
tion to our modes of thinking and feeling, that to the 
most charitable they promise little or no aid in the 
great work of enlightening the mind, and to others 
they are a most alarming accompaniment of the im- 
migration—could you sit quiet and at ease ? 

1 By Dr. Benjamin C. Cutler. 2 Sermon, p. 9. 



PROSPECTS OF THE WEST. 369 

" And while you proudly traversed with your eye 
the majestic map, or beheld the swelling columns 
of your numerical strength ; while the rivers of the 
west are rolling down their rich harvests, and you 
by them are enabled to build stately habitations and 
to dwell in them, — could you forbear to think of 
the future? The more you magnify the wealth and 
population of the west, unless that population is en- 
lightened and religious, the more should your fears 
be magnified. 

" Cities and villages, governments and maxims 
of government, opinions, principles, and habits, are 
all now struggling for existence amid that peculiarly 
selected, vigorous, and independent population. And 
while the comparative poverty of the eastern part 
of our national domain, and the impassable barrier 
of the Atlantic Ocean, is hemming in and limiting for 
ever the influence of the eastern and Atlantic states, 
the horizon towards the west is illimitable. 

" States and nations may in future times date their 
origin back to the millions which have now taken 
possession of that most fertile part of the American 
continent. Nor is this all. While the population 
is increasing and rolling westward, that which is now 
denominated the east will be compelled into entire 
subjection to its own offspring. The time cannot 
be far distant when, contrary to the course of heaven, 
light and authority will proceed from west to east. 1 

1 One state at the west now has more votes and more voices 
on the floor of congress than four of the New England states. 



370 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

But oh, will it be the pure light of heaven, or the 
lurid fires of superstition, cruelty, and crime ? 

" Upon us most certainly devolves the duty of 
directing the destiny of the west, and that is the destiny 
of both east and west. . . . There is now a crisis in the 
affairs of the American people . . . (much is needed) 
to retain our prosperity, our liberty, and our reli- 
gion On two or three important places has our 

Church commenced this work. Ohio and Kentucky, 
at the head of the great valley, have now in the 
centre of each an institution for extending the influ- 
ence of religion and learning. Further on, Tenessee 
and Illinois are organising for this purpose ; Mis- 
souri and the fertile states at the south, through 
which the riches of the west are passing, will not be 

long unoccupied Whether we shall push our 

own principles of liberty and religion on to the great 
battle-ground, and effectually establish them against 
all opposition, or whether we shall there be met and 
resisted, and crowded back to the mountains and 
rocks, where the first great battles of our independ- 
ence were fought, upon the present generation of 
American Christians or upon that which shall imme- 
diately succeed them, it must under God depend." 

Under such a sense of responsibility as regarded 
the work of domestic missions did the Church en- 
gage in reconstructing her missionary constitution. A 
few extracts from the sermon preached by Dr. Doane, 
the bishop of New Jersey, at the consecration of Bi- 
shop Kemper, on his election by this convention as 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOP. 371 

first missionary bishop, will shew the ground taken 
and the principles affirmed throughout this whole 
institution. They differ widely from that earlier 
temper which depressed as low as possible the of- 
fice and authority of bishops, which restrained the 
Church from their election, and looked upon them 
with a watchful jealousy. In answer to the ques- 
tion, " What is a missionary bishop ?" he ob- 
serves : " As the Church obeying the mandate of her 
divine Head sends presbyters and deacons ' to go 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature ;' so may she, and so should she — emulating 
that divine compassion which yearned over the faint- 
ing multitudes that roamed untended and unfed 
amongst the mountains of Judaea — send bishops to 
them, to seek the wandering flocks, to lead them to 
the sacred fold, to appoint them under-shepherds, 
to oversee and govern them with due authority and 
godly discipline, and ' warning every man and teach- 
ing every man in all wisdom' to do all that in them lies 
■ to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.' And 
this is what is meant by a missionary bishop : a bi- 
shop sent forth by the Church, not sought for of \he 
Church ; going before to organise the Church, not 
waiting till the Church has been partially organised ; 
a leader, not a follower, in the march of the Re- 
deemer's conquering and triumphant Gospel ; sus- 
tained by their alms whom God has blessed both 
with the power and will to offer to Him of their sub- 
stance, for their benefit who are not blessed with 



372 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

both or either of them ; sent by the Church, even 
as the Church is sent by Christ, not to such only as 
have knowledge of His truth and desire Him for 
their King, but to the ignorant and rebellious, to 
them who know not of His name, or will not have 
Him to reign over them." 

He then goes on to shew from holy Scripture 
that " the office of Apostle or — the inspiration and 
the power of miracles ceasing with the necessity 
for them — of missionary bishop was confirmed by 
Jesus Christ Himself with perpetuity of succession 
to the end of time ;" and then points out " why 
the times especially require such efforts. " Having 
shewn the needs and openings of heathen lands, 
he points their attention to their own. " Do we 
look homeward? Through the regions of our own 
unbounded west see how the stream of life sets on- 
ward. Behold, in arts, in wealth, in power, a pro- 
gress such as earth has never seen, outrunning 
even fancy's wildest dreams ; but w T ith no provi- 
sion that at all keeps pace with it for the securing 
of man's nobler and immortal interests. Observe 
with what a keen and shrewd regard the Church of 
Rome has marked that region for her own, and with 
w T hat steadiness of purpose she pursues her aim, and 
seeks to lay the deep foundations of a power which 
is to grow as it grows, and to strengthen as it gathers 
strength." Further on he reminds them where they 
are charged to labour " The field is the whole 
world. To every soul of man in every part of it 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOP. 373 

the Gospel is to be preached ; everywhere the Gos- 
pel is to be preached, by, through, and in the Church. 
To bishops, as the successors of the Apostles, the 
promise of the Lord was given to be with His 
Church 'alway to the end of the world;' upon bi- 
shops, as successors of the Apostles, the perpetuation 
of the Christian ministry depends ; to bishops, as 
successors of the Apostles, the government of the 
Church, the preaching of the word, the administra- 
tion of the sacraments, the care of souls, has been 
entrusted. Without bishops, as successors of the 
Apostles, there is no warrant, and for fifteen hun- 
dred years from Christ there was no precedent, for 
the establishment or the extension of the Church. 
Possessing these things, act accordingly. Freely ye 
have received, freely give. Open your eyes to the 
wants, open your ears to the cry, open your hands 
for the relief, of a perishing world. Send the Gospel, 
send it as you received it, in the Church; send out 
to preach the Gospel and to build the Church — to 
every portion of your own broad land, to every 
stronghold of the prince of hell, to every den and 
nook and lurking-place of heathendom — a missionary 
bishop." 

Further, he enforces on them the discharge of 
this their duty by the consideration of the very 
" genius and order of the Church." " It is of the 
nature of a trust that there be always given with 
it authority and power for the due execution of all 
its proper uses. It is still farther of the nature of 

K K 



374 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

a trust, that on its acceptance there devolves on the 
trustee the bounden duty to secure as much as in him 
lies its full and faithful execution. Now the Gospel 
is God's gift in trust for the conversion and salva- 
tion of lost man. The Church is His trustee To 

discharge the duties of a continual trust, the trustee 
of necessity must have continuance. The Church is 
by divine appointment perpetual by succession in the 
highest order of her ministry. * All power is given unto 
me in heaven and earth ;'* * As my Father hath sent 
me, so send 1 you ;' 2 ' Lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world.' 3 . . . Hence of necessity flow 
out resulting trusts, immense in value and of infinite 

responsibility. She is to be a missionary Church 

Her bishops are Apostles, each in his proper sphere 
sent out to * feed the Church of God;' jointly and 
in agreement with established principles of order in 
the Church, they have the power which Christ im- 
parted to the twelve — ■ As my Father sent me, so send 
I you' — to send Apostles in His name. Her ministers 
are all evangelists, to go wherever God shall call 
them through His Church to bear the blessed tidings 
of salvation, through the blood of Jesus, for a ruined 
world. Her members, baptised into the death of 
Jesus, and so purchased by His blood, are mission- 
aries all in spirit or intent, to go, or — if themselves 
go not — to see that others go, and to contribute faith- 
fully and freely of the ability which God shall give 

1 St. Matt, xxviii. 18. 2 St. John xx. 21. 

3 St. Matt, xxviii. 20. 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOP. 375 

them, to sustain them while they go and * preach the 
Gospel unto every creature. 5 Such, as the Scripture 
teaches, is the original, the permanent, the immutable 
constitution of the Christian Church ; such, by the 
solemn act of its highest legislative council, is de- 
clared to be the constitution of this Church. Bap- 
tised into her in the name of the eternal Three in 
One, you become a party to the trust with which she 
is honoured by her heavenly Head to preach the 
everlasting Gospel. It is a trust which no man who 
has once assumed can put off; for his baptismal vow 
is registered in heaven, and will go with him in 
its consequences of unmingled bliss or woe through- 
out eternity." 

For the discharge of this trust by her children, 
he goes on to shew them that the Church, after 
her Lord's example, had now made a fit provi- 
sion. " It is recorded of the Holy Saviour, as He 
went out amongst the cities and villages of Judaea 
preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, that when 
He saw the multitudes He was moved with compas- 
sion on them, because they fainted and were scat- 
tered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. ' Then 
saith He unto His disciples, the harvest truly is 
plenteous, but the labourers are few T ; pray ye there- 
fore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth 
labourers into His harvest.' .... Behold, brethren, 
in the service which assembles us this day, the re- 
sult of God's especial blessing on the Church's holy 
emulation of her Saviour's love. Like Him and on 



376 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the pathway which His blessed footsteps traced with 
tears and blood, the Church has gone about amongst 
the villages and cities of this broad and sinful land. 
Every where has she found ignorant to instruct, 
mourners to comfort, rebels to reclaim, sinners to 
save ; but the west, the vast distant and unsettled 
west, has fixed her eye and agonised her heart. 
There, indeed, has she saved great multitudes that 
fainted with the burden of the weary way, and wan- 
dered cheerless and uncared for as ' sheep that have 
no shepherd.' There, indeed, has she beheld the 
wily serpent and the prowling wolf, and regretted 
with bitter tears that she could do no more to guard 
her Saviour's lambs Encouraged by the di- 
vine assurance, she betook herself to prayer 

she supplicated the gracious Lord of that abundant 
harvest, that He would ■ send forth labourers into 
His harvest.' He graciously inclined His ear and 

heard her prayer He was present by His divine 

and Holy Spirit in the council of His Church, as He 
had been in the councils of the Apostles. He har- 
monised all hearts. He suggested wisdom, He im- 
parted courage, He communicated thoughts ; above 
all, He sent His Holy Ghost, and poured into their 
hearts c that most excellent gift of charity, the very 
bond of peace and of all virtues,' and so enabled 
them as but one man to contrive, digest, mature, 
propose, accomplish, and carry into practice the great 
missionary work, that here, this day, ... we have 
come up before His altar, to present the first fruit 



MISSIONARY ORGANISATION. 377 

of the Saviour's answer to His Church's prayer for 
her lost sheep in the vast west — her first — God grant 
that it need not long be said — her only missionary 
bishop." 1 

Such were the principles on which the new 
missionary constitution of the American Church 
was founded ; and they are consistently maintained 
throughout all its details. The report of the com- 
mittee to which its organisation was entrusted, and 
who agreed "as one man" in their conclusions, was 
thus explained by their chairman, Bishop Doane (of 
New Jersey) to the convention. " He shewed 2 that 
by the original constitution of Christ, the Church, 
as the Church, was the one great missionary society ; 
and the Apostles and the bishops their successors, 
His perpetual trustees ; and that this could not and 
should never be divided or deputed, The duty, he 
maintained, to support the Church in preaching the 
Gospel to every creature w 7 as one which passed on 
every Christian by the terms of his baptismal vo?v, 
and from which he could never be absolved. The 
general convention he claimed to be the duly con- 
stituted representative of the Church ; and pointed 
out its admirable combination of all that was neces- 

1 Bishop Doane' s Sermon. 

2 Appendix to a sermon preached at the consecration of 
the Right Rev. Jackson Kemper, D.D., Missionary Bishop 
for Missouri and Indiana, in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, 
by G. H. Doane, D.D., Bishop of the diocese of New Jersey, 
Sept. 25, 1835. The italics, &c., in the text, are copied from 
the original. 



378 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

sary to secure, on the one hand, the confidence of 
the whole Church, and, on the other, the most con- 
centrated and intense efficiency. He then explained 
the constitution of the board of missions, the per- 
manent agent of the Church in this behalf; . . . and 
in subordination to it the two executive committees 
for the two departments, foreign and domestic, of 
the one great fold. . . Each having its secretary and 
agent, some strong and faithful man, embued . . . with 
the missionary spirit, the index-finger, as it were, 
of the committee. . . . For the effectual organisation 
of the body in the holy work to which the Saviour 
calls them, he indicated the parochial relation as the 
most important of all bonds, calling on every clergy- 
man, as the agent of the board, for Jesus' sake to 
use his utmost efforts in instructing first, and then 
interesting his people, then in engaging their free- 
will offering of themselves in its support, upon the 
apostolic plan of systematic charity, laying up in 
store on every Lord's day as God should prosper 
them ; and when the gathering was made, transmit- 
ting to the treasury of the Church the consecrated 
alms/' 

This report being received by the convention, a 
" constitution" in accordance with it was prepared, 
and adopted with remarkable unanimity. Nothing 
could shew more clearly the general change of feeling 
in the body than the unanimous adoption by clergy- 
men and laity of this report. Instead of doubtfully 
and timidly maintaining episcopacy, amply conten- 



NEW ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH. 379 

ted with a cold toleration from others, and deeming 
apology for her peculiarities continually needful, the 
Church now declared herself to be indeed Christ's 
messenger, resolved in His strength to bear His 
message. Instead of watching jealously the bishop's 
authority, and restraining it under the merely human 
machinery of committees and the like, she boldly 
avowed that in it was the secret of administrative 
strength, of vigour combined with unity, as well as 
the principle of ministerial reproduction, and therein 
the great external instrument for the perpetuity of her 
own witness. This new and vigorous conduct was 
the fruit of God's blessing upon their labours who 
lived not to see on this earth their reward. It was 
that at which Bishop Hobart had aimed when, as 
by a trumpet's voice, he had roused her slumbering 
watchmen. It filled with humble joy the hearts of 
tho^e who witnessed it. " For ourselves," says an 
American publication 1 of the day, "we consider it 
a measure of far greater promise to the Church of 
Christ than any which in our day has been effected. 
In its adoption the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
the United States has placed herself on primitive 
ground. She stands as a Church in the very attitude 
in which the apostolic Church at Jerusalem, when 
the day of Pentecost had brought the Holy Spirit 
down to guide and bless it, set out to bear the Gos- 
pel of its heavenly Head to every soul of man in 

1 See Appendix to " Missionary Bishop," p. 46. 



380 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

every land. As the Church, she undertakes, and 
before God binds herself to sustain the injunction 
of her Lord, to go and ' make disciples of all nations, 
baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Upon every one 
who, in the water of baptism, has owned the eternal 
triune Name, she lays, on peril of his soul if he 
neglect it, the same sacred charge. Her bishops 
are apostles all ; her clergy, all evangelists ; her 
members — each in his own sphere and to his utmost 
strength — are missionaries every man ; and she — 
that noblest of all names — a missionary Church, ' to 
the intent that now unto the principalities and powers 
in heavenly places may be made known, by the 
Church, the manifold wisdom of God.' 

" The constitution, as amended, having passed 
both houses on Friday the 28th, and the committee 
to nominate the board of missions having, on Satur- 
day, been elected by ballot, they reported, on Mon- 
day, the persons nominated, who were at once una- 
nimously confirmed. Then, for the first time, was 
the Church enabled to act to the full limit of her 
divine commission. Hitherto she had worked to 
disadvantage, in sending out and sustaining, in her 
missionary field, deacons and presbyters, without the 
benefit of episcopal influence and episcopal super- 
vision. Her flocks were thus without a shepherd ; 
and she stood before the world, so far as she was a 
missionary Church, an anomaly, a self-contradiction ; 
professing to 6 do nothing without a bishop/ and yet 



MISSIONARY CONSTITUTION. 381 

planting churches every where, which owed allegiance 
to no bishop, and could claim no bishop's blessing. 
By the new organisation, the missionary authority 
and the missionary means come into the same hands. 
Before, the Church ordained missionaries who were 
to go out under the protection, and rely on the patron- 
age, of a society which the Church could not control ; 
now, the Church herself, by her constituted repre- 
sentative, collects from all her members the offerings 
of their love ; and from the sacred treasure clothes 
and feeds the servants, whom, in Jesus' name, she 
sends. She is free now to send ; she is able to send ; 
she is entirely safe in sending, as her divine Lord 
sent at first, the overseer as well as the servant ; 
the elders of the Church not only, but the apostle, 
? to ordain elders in every city,' and to ' set in order 
the things which are wanting.' Accordingly, the 
board of missions was no sooner organised, than the 
canon ' of missionary bishops,' which had occupied 
for several days the attention of the house of clerical 
and lay deputies, was passed unanimously, providing 
not only that apostles should be sent to gather in the 
scattered sheep throughout our own broad land, but 
to preach the Gospel, and to build the Church, 
' where'er the foot of man hath trod.' A canon 
worthy to be inscribed in golden letters over every 
altar — let us say more of it than that, a truly apos- 
tolic canon, 

" But Tuesday, Sept. 1st, as it was the last day 
of the convention, so was it, by eminence, the day of 



dXZ AMERICAN CHURCH. 

glorious issues for the Church. The board of mis- 
sions, at the call of the venerable presiding bishop, 
held its first meeting, and appointed its two com- 
mittees ; that for domestic missions to be located in 
the city of New York, and that for foreign missions 
in the city of Philadelphia. The important business 
of the session was tending to a close ; the whole day 
had been diligently occupied in the most solemn 
duties. The canon ' of missionary bishops' had re- 
ceived the final sanction of both houses. Two over- 
shepherds were to be sent out, the messengers of 
the Church, to gather and to feed, under the di- 
rection of the house of bishops, the scattered sheep 
that wander, with no man to care for their souls, 
through all the wide and distant west. It was an 
act in this Church never exercised before, and yet, 
upon its due discharge, interests depended which 
outweigh the world, and will run out into eternity. 
In the church (St. Andrew's) the representatives 
of the dioceses are assembled. They wait, in their 
proper places, the eventful issue, while expecta- 
tion thrills the hearts of all the multitude which 
throngs the outer courts. In a retired apartment, 
the fathers of the Church are in deep consultation. 
There are twelve assembled. They kneel in silent 
prayer. They rise. They cast their ballots. A 
presbyter, whose praise is in all the churches, is 
called by them to leave a heritage as fair as ever 
fell to mortal man, and bear His Master's cross 
through the deep forests of the vast south-west. 



BP. WHITE IN GENERAL CONVENTION. 383 

Again the ballots are prepared. They are cast in 
silence. They designate to the same arduous work, 
where broad Missouri pours her rapid tide, another, 
known and loved of all, whom, from a humbler lot, 
the Saviour now has called to feed His sheep. A 
messenger bears the result to the assembled depu- 
ties. A breathless silence fills the house of God. 
It is announced that Francis L. Hawks and Jackson 
Kemper, doctors in divinity, are nominated the two 
first missionary bishops of the Church ; and all the 
delegates, as with a single voice, confirm the de- 
signation. 

" One scene remains. The night is far advanced. 
The drapery of solemn black which lines the church 
seems more funereal in the faint light of the expiring 
lamps, The congregation linger still, to hear the 
parting counsels of their fathers in the Lord. There 
is a stir in the deep chancel. The bishops enter, 
and array themselves in their appropriate seats. The 
aged patriarch, at whose hands they all have been 
invested with the warrant of their holy trust, stands 
in the desk — in aspect meek, serene, and venerable, 
as the beloved John at Ephesus, when, sole survivor 
of the apostolic band, he daily urged upon his flock 
the affecting lesson, ' Little children, love one an- 
other V Erect and tall, though laden with the weight 
of almost ninety winters, and with voice distinct and 
clear, he holds enchained all eyes, all ears, all hearts, 
while, with sustained and vigorous spirit, he recites, in 



384 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the behalf and name of all his brethren, the pastoral 
message, drawn from the stores of his long-hoarded 
learning, enforced by the deductions of his old ex- 
perience, and instinct throughout with the seraphic 
meekness of his wisdom. He ceases from his faith- 
ful testimony. The voice of melody, in the befitting 
words of that delightful Psalm, ' Behold, how good 
and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in 
unity,' melts every heart. And then all knees are 
bent, to ask once more, as something to be borne 
and cherished in all after-life, the apostolic benedic- 
tion of that good old man." 

It was indeed a goodly progress which God had 
permitted this aged man to witness since eight and 
forty years before (February 1787) he had kneeled 
in the chapel at Lambeth, and received the gift of 
consecration from the English primate. Great had 
been God's goodness to the infant western Church ; 
and now, at last, in the spirit of love and of a sound 
mind which He was pouring out upon her, that good- 
ness seemed to be fulfilled. The old man might 
well take up the song of holy Simeon, and declare 
his readiness now " to depart in peace." 

The direct consequences of the new missionary 
organisation were soon visible in the Church. They 
might be traced in a general increase of healthful 
energy, the natural consequence of the consciousness 
of having taken rightfully high ground. Funds, which 
had been sparingly supplied whilst the missionary 



INCREASE OF MISSIONARY FUNDS. 3S5 

cause was trusted to occasional appeals, and sacrifices 
made under excited feelings, now flowed in steadily 
and abundantly, when every baptised man was sum- 
moned in right of his vow at baptism to the duty of 
making systematic offerings to His Master's cause. 
The whole machinery of meetings, and sermons, 
and auxiliary societies, had only raised the mission- 
ary income to 33 7 1, per annum from the year 1820, 
when the society was founded, until 1829. Then a 
new spirit began to awaken, and in the three next 
years it had reached more than ten times that 
amount, exceeding 3000/. But it did not rest here. 
In the very year which followed the amended con- 
stitution, the missionary income of the Church was 
raised at once by the principles, now brought to bear 
upon the whole community, to a sum exceeding 
12,000/. The main cause of this vast increase is to 
be found in the one simple principle of calling upon 
all to give something to the work, as God hath pro- 
spered them, upon the first day of the week, because 
they are Christian men. This was first warmly 
pressed upon the Church by the present Bishop 
(G. W. Doane) of New Jersey, and its immediate 
pecuniary consequences (far, indeed, the smallest in 
importance) may be seen in the following statement 1 
of the comparative sums raised in six parishes within 
his diocese, on an average of five years on the old 
plan and one of the new. 

1 Taken from Caswall's America and American Church, 
p. 264. 

L L 



386 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



St. Mary's, Burlington . . . 
Trinity Church, Newark . . . 
Christ Church, New Brunswick 
Christ's Church, Newton . . 

St. Mark's, Orange 

St. Peter's, Morristown . . . 



Average of 5 vears 


Offerings of the Church 


under the old plan. 


for the first year. 


Doll. Cents. 


£ 8. 


Doll. Cents. 


£ 8. 


76 94 


17 7 


271 59 


61 4 


49 52 


11 3 


149 20 


33 1 


13 46 


3 


79 98 


18 


5 


1 2 


50 


11 5 


7 54 


1 15 


49 15 


11 1 


12 36 


2 15 


32 6 


7 4 


Under the old 3 7 2 


Underthenewl41 16 



Total 



Nor was this the only evident advance. Men, 
for the work of the ministry, are more needed in 
America than money for its conduct. So it must 
ever be to a great degree ; for personal service is a 
far harder sacrifice than any gifts of substance, and 
one, therefore, which requires a much stronger faith 
in him who offers it. Nor can any thing more ef- 
fectually repress this high spirit of self-sacrifice than 
conducting missionary exertions on a contracted scale, 
or employing in the work the lower orders only of 
the ministry, as if it were unworthy of the higher. 
On this account the move now made in America 
promised the happiest results. The sending out 
the missionary bishop ; the attitude assumed by 
the whole Church ; the new responsibility so so- 
lemnly professed ; all of these awoke attention to 
the real greatness of the undertaking, and so called 
forth minds of the highest temper to their appropriate 
work. The first fruit of the new system may be 
found in Bishop Kemper's labours, who at once un- 
dertook that office for the due discharge of which he 
was admirably qualified. Wise, courteous, and con- 
ciliating, he was at the same time unwearied in energy 



INCREASE OF THE CHURCH. 387 

and unsparing in exertion. The scattered settlers of 
his missionary diocese have seen and heard the Wit- 
ness for Christ, who has followed them into the moral 
wilderness ; and to the red man of Indian blood the 
same blessed message has been borne by the same 
chief minister of Christ. The band of presbyters is 
gathering around him. When he was consecrated 
there was but one in all Indiana ; in 1 838, eight clergy- 
men were labouring amidst growing congregations. 
In Missouri, a college under the bishop's eye will soon 
spread more widely still the daily advancing influence 
of the Church. Every where life is present and growth 
visible. In most of the older dioceses there is a 
marked and even rapid increase. Virginia can again 
shew eighty-four presbyters amongst her pastors, 
and, which she could not do of old, two bishops at 
their head. Vermont, which had long formed a part 
of the eastern diocese, elected, in 1832, its separate 
bishop, and under his able and vigilant superintend- 
ence has been steadily growing in strength and vi- 
gour. The other members of the eastern diocese 
are looking on to a like partition, and like separate 
existence under their own bishops. New York is 
dividing, under the provisions of the general con- 
vention, into two independent sees. The clergy of 
Ohio, whose infant beginnings Bishop Chase had 
fostered, in 1838 numbered almost sixty. In Ken- 
tucky diocese they had multiplied from eight to 
twenty-one between 1832 and 1838; whilst, in the 
same space, in Tenessee three scattered presbyters 



388 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

have been exchanged for a resident diocesan, twelve 
settled clergymen, and an infant college for theo- 
logical instruction. In 1836, Michigan received its 
bishop, and has since flourished greatly under his 
exertions; while, in 1838, a diocese was organised 
in the far southern state of Florida. 

Such have been some of the immediate results 
which have followed the awakening of the Church to 
the sense of her high duties and entrusted powers. 
That she may thus go on and prosper, must be the 
earnest prayer, not only of every English Church- 
man, but of every one who loves in truth the hon- 
our of His Master's name. 

For the work of foreign missions she is eminent- 
ly qualified. For this peculiar service she is ren- 
dered fitter even by her separation from the state ; 
unfettered by political connexion, she may multiply at 
need her bishops, whilst the energy and maritime ad- 
venture of her Anglo-Saxon race promise to secure 
admission for her flag to every nation of the earth. It 
may be that for this work specially her witness has been 
thus raised up in the west : it may be that for this the 
providence of God was over-ruling that want of faith, 
or that indolence, at home which never suffered her 
to grow into a perfect Church whilst her connexion 
with the mother-people lasted : — that so she might 
spring at length into a sudden maturity, rich in 
hopes, rich in expectations : in the first possession of 
her powers, when she could thus use them without 
let or hindrance for the evangelising of the world. 



DEATH OF BISHOP WHITE. 389 

From us she must have learned a slower and more 
cautious policy ; and even the achievement of her 
national independence might not have broken through 
old habits, or set her free to labour in the ardour 
of her first love for every race which yet sits in 
darkness. 

May this, then, be her course ; may she be 
stirred up to earnest prayer, to high gifts of self- 
sacrifice, to untiring and well-ordered labours, and 
the grace of God will go along with her. Great 
achievements lie before her. An open field for 
noble and unlimited service invites all her energies. 
In her, too, is the " salt of the earth" for the pre- 
servation of her own busy and restless people. The 
unbounded western frontier, her fertile soil, her 
enterprising citizens, her mighty forests, her har- 
bours, her traffic, and her merchandise — -these may 
make America rich and luxurious, and for a season 
mighty among the people of the earth ; but in the 
Church of Jesus, thus planted in the midst of her, 
and in that alone, is to be found the pervading, ele- 
vating, and enduring influence, which can make her 
truly great. 

This important convention rose on the 1st of 
September, 1835. It was the last, as has been said, 
over which the venerable Bishop White presided. 
Long as it had been delayed, to him also the last 
summons was now sent. Throughout this year and 
until the following June, he continued as usual to 
officiate in his parish duties. Then severe illness 
l l 2 



390 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

bowed down his aged frame. Still his strength en- 
dured. He rallied from his sickness, and appeared 
to be again possessed of renovated vigour ; and it was 
hoped he might preside at the approaching consecra- 
tion of Dr. M'Coskry, elected bishop of Michigan. 
But his sands were fast running out. No violent 
disease re-appeared ; but the fountains were broken 
up, and his life ebbed gently from him. Surrounded 
by his family, and attended by Bishop Doane and 
Dr. M'Coskry, " in full reliance on the alone merits 
of his Saviour, and blessed in realising God's pro- 
tecting care in life and death," 1 he meekly breathed 
his last, during the morning service of the Church 
he loved, on Sunday, July 17, 1836. 

Of the character of this good man, little can 
be added to what has been already said in tracing 
the history with which his life is intertwined. He 
was doubtless an eminent instrument of God in lay- 
ing the foundations of the western Church. For 
this his meek wisdom greatly fitted him ; proba- 
bly with any other cast of character he could not 
have done what he now was able to effect. Though 
classed by his biographer with " the low-church di- 
vines, as they are called, of the Church of England," 
he yet maintained firmly the distinctive features of 
Church doctrine. Speaking of a sermon preached 
by Bishop Moore before the convention of 1820, and 
of the offence given to some of the house of deputies 

1 Life of Bishop White, by Dr. Bird Wilson, p. 267. 



OPINIONS OF BISHOP WHITE. 391 

by its maintaining the doctrine of baptismal regenera- 
tion, lie admits that on such an occasion " all ques- 
tions should be avoided in which the sense of the 
episcopal Church is doubtful." " But," he con- 
tinues, " it is to be lamented that there should be 
brought under this head a doctrine which we have 
been taught to lisp in the earliest repetitions of our 
Catechism, which pervades sundry of our devotional 
services, especially the baptismal, which is affirmed 
in our Articles also, which was confessedly held and 
taught during the ages of the martyrs, and the belief 
of which was universal in the Church until it was 
perceived to be inconsistent with a religious theory 
the beginning and the progress of which can be as 
distinctly traced as those of any error of popery." 1 

He was not less distinct as to the ministry of the 
Christian Church. In his " Lecture on the Cate- 
chism," he lays it down that bishops, priests, and 
deacons are of divine appointment ; 2 that succession 
is the only mode of transmitting the ministry which 
is of divine institution ; and that the door of enter- 
ing opened by the Head of the Church is the only 
one through which the character of a pastor in the 
Church can be obtained. 3 

It is true that it is difficult always to reconcile 
his practical concessions with the strictness of the 

1 Life, by Dr. Bird Wilson, p. 229. 

2 Ibid. p. 157, 158. 

3 Vide letter of Bishop Hobart to Bishop White, — in 
M'Vickar's Life, p. 413. 



392 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

principles he here lays down ; but, as we have seen, 
this very temper made hirn probably the fitter in- 
strument for his own peculiar task. God works by 
various hands ; and the soft and yielding, so that 
they be faithful to His truth, have their own ap- 
pointed task, even as to the sterner and more rugged, 
if His grace dwell in them, is allotted theirs. And 
to his light this venerable man would seem to have 
been always true. He was bred, indeed, in a lower 
school both of faith and Christian feeling than that 
which was afterwards vouchsafed to the Church ; 
and from this cause there seems, to a certain extent, 
to have always hung about him a want of distinct- 
ness as to the higher Christian doctrines, and a cor- 
responding want of warmth of spiritual character : 
but he was a truly humble man, and the blessing of 
the meek w r as his. His trust was only in his cruci- 
fied Redeemer, and he did seek for the sanctifying 
presence of the Holy Spirit. The rock was under 
him ; and throughout a long life he never shrunk 
from any known duty. 

When, in the autumn of 1793, the yellow fever 
first appeared in Philadelphia, it spread a panic terror 
through all classes. The curse of a plague-struck 
city was upon the population. Along the deserted 
streets, amidst the vultures which preyed upon the 
offal, roamed only those fiends in human garb who 
seek at such a moment for plunder amongst the dying 
and the dead. Three-fourths of all the inhabitants 
had fled from the place. The outcast, the infected, 



CHARACTER OF BISHOP WHITE. 393 

the dying, and the few whom love kept still around 
their beds, — these only remained. Dr. White was 
strongly urged to join the flying throng. The spe- 
cious argument, that his single life was eminently 
precious, assailed him from the lips of those whom 
he esteemed for piety and loved with the simple 
warmth of family affection. But he listened not to 
such suggestions. Where should the pastor be at 
such a time but with the sick and dying ? where 
the bishop but at the head of his flock ? Removing 
his family into the country, he remained at his own 
house, spending days and nights with the victims of 
the pestilence. One servant, who resolved to re- 
main with his master, died in his sight; but his faith 
was not shaken ; and the plague passed off without 
his receiving any injury > 

Once again, thirty-nine years later, he was tried 
in the same way. The Asiatic cholera appeared at 
Philadelphia with all the terror of its appalling cha- 
racter and unknown course. His advanced years 
would then have furnished an easy excuse for one 
who sought to escape the supposed danger of inter- 
course with the infected. But the aged bishop was 
a man of another stamp; and in his eighty-fifth year 
he might be seen daily in the cholera hospital pray- 
ing by the bedside of the dying patients. 

Nor, with so much that was naturally yielding 
in his temper, did he fail, when his judgment was 
decided, boldly to resist those with whose politi- 
cal opinions he was most predisposed to sympa- 



394 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

thise. In his later years a large sum of money was 
bequeathed by a wealthy Philadelphian merchant to 
the corporation of the city, for the foundation of an 
orphan college, on the sole condition that the boys 
should be kept without any instructions in any reli- 
gious creed from six to eighteen, that they might 
then " adopt such religious tenets as their matured 
reason should enable them to prefer." But the good 
bishop was not to be led away by this specious libe- 
rality. He at once condemned the conditions of the 
will, and addressed to the corporation an uncompro- 
mising and powerful appeal, in which he urged them 
" to a respectful but determined rejection of the 
trust." " It is," he allowed, " a great sacrifice ; but 
it cannot be too great when the acceptance of it 
would be an acknowledgment that religion, even in 
its simplest forms, is unnecessary to the binding men 
to their various duties." 1 

1 Life of Bishop "White, p. 244. The supreme court of the 
United States has just (in 1S44) unanimously set aside this 
bequest, after it had been confirmed by the local jurisdiction of 
Philadelphia. The speech of D. Webster on the occasion is 
full of a noble eloquence : " Would any Christian parent," he 
asks, ' ■ consider it desirable for his orphan children after his 
death to find refuge in this asylum . . . under all the circum- 
stances and characteristics which belong to it ? ... Poor as 
children can be left, who would not rather trust them to the 
Christian charity of the world, however uncertain it has been 
said to be, than place them where their physical wants and 
comforts would be abundantly attended to, but away from the 
solaces, the consolations, the graces, and the grace of the Chris- 
tian religion ?" 



PLAN OF CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 395 

He died, as he had lived for eighty-eight years — 
without an enemy ; and, the first of that order which 
had been the subject of such fierce suspicions, he 
was followed to his grave, through streets from 
which ordinary business had been spontaneously 
banished, by the public authorities, by the various 
literary and charitable bodies, and by thousands of 
unpurchased mourners. 

The thread of our history has brought us down 
to living men, and scenes in the great drama which 
are not yet acted out. Here it seems meet to pause, 
remembering the caution of the wise historian, w r ho, 
for safety's sake, would not " follow even truth too 
closely by the heels." We have brought down the 
history of the Church from its ambiguous colonial 
existence, through the struggles of the war of inde- 
pendence, to its firm and general establishment in 
the wide regions of the western continent. The 
table which concludes this chapter will shew at one 
view the dates and order of the foundation of the 
various dioceses, and the consecrations of the differ- 
ent bishops of America. 

It remains only, in the concluding chapter, to 
estimate the present position, and, as far as may be, 
the yet distant prospect, of the body the history of 
which thus lies before us. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Present influence of the Episcopal Church — Rapid extension — Esti- 
mated numbers — Clergy — Extent and population of dioceses — 
Influence on the moral character of the people — Favourable symp- 
toms — Sects — Revivals — Socinianism — Sober tone of the Church 

— Duelling — Its character in America — Instance — Church re- 
sists duels — Canon — Instance — Unfavourable symptoms — Di- 
vorce—Marriage—Treatment of the coloured race — The great 
sore of America — State of negroes in the south, religious, moral, 
physical — Slave-breeding states — Internal slave-trade — Duty of 
the Church to testify— Her silence — Participation — Palliation of 
these evils — State of the coloured population in the north — Insults 

— Degradation — Caste — Duty of the Church — Her silence — Case 
of General Theological Seminary — Alexander Crummell — Esti- 
mate of her influence — Her small hold on the poor — Architecture 
and arrangement of churches — Pew-rent system — Prospects of 
the Church — Danger from indifference to formal truth — Chap- 
lains to Congress — Thomas Jefferson — Romanism — Its schis- 
matical rise in America — Spread in the west — Promises a re- 
fuge from the sects — Courts democracy — Main resistance from 
the Church — How she may be strong — Need of adhering to 
her own principles — Of a high moral tone — The slave -ques- 
tion — Favourable promise — Higher principles — More care of 
the poor — Coloured race — Gains on the population — Conclu- 
sion. 

In forming an estimate of the present state of the 
American Episcopal Church, there are several lines 



EXTENT AND NUMBERS OF THE CHURCH. 397 

of inquiry which we may follow up. The first 
which naturally suggests itself is, its territorial and 
numerical hold upon the extent and population of 
the land. If, then, we compare the map of America 
with the fixed organisation of the Church, we are at 
once struck with its rapid and universal extension. 
Bishoprics, as well as what in the looser language 
of the west are termed dioceses, 1 are well-nigh co- 
extensive with the states of the Union. Through 
all that vast continent the living form of Church- 
polity has grown up as in a night, from the two 
bishops who landed at New York on Easter Sun- 
day 1787. From puritan Massachusetts in the 
north, down to the slave-tilled bottoms of torrid 
Louisiana, and from the crowded harbour of New 
York back to the unbroken forests and rolling 
prairie of Illinois, the successors of the Twelve ad- 
minister in Christ's name the rule of His spiritual 
kingdom. 

It is not so easy to estimate aright the propor- 
tion of the varied population of these wide tracts 
which have received this faith. The work of its 
leaven-like power and growing presence is noiseless 
and secret, and to obtain exact accuracy may be 
impossible ; but something may be done. It has 
been calculated, as the nearest approximation which 

1 Districts in which a number of congregations are united 
together according to the rules of the American Church, and 
so termed " organised," and capable of sending delegates to 
convention, but which do not yet possess a bishop. 
M M 



398 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

can be obtained, that about 1,500,000 of the popu- 
lation of the United States belong to this commu- 
nion: its clergy amount to 1224. l Here, therefore, 
also, is abundant proof of a wide-spread and in- 
creasing growth of this fair plant of God amongst 
our western children ; since the hindrances imposed 
by our carelessness or fear were swept away, and it 
has been allowed to strike at will its roots among 
them. 

But though there be goodly signs of life and 
growth in the extension of dioceses and the gathering 
in of souls, yet, on the other hand, when we see the 
vast extent over which diocesan authority is spread, 
it seems as if it must too often melt into a shadow : 
and when further we compare the number in the fold 
with the multitude without, we perceive that as yet 
the hold of this communion on the mass of living 
acting men can be but slight. It is too plain, that 
in many districts it consists only of a scattered hand- 
ful here and there, and lias not yet gathered in with 
a strong arm the ripe harvest of souls into the gar- 
ner of the Lord. The annexed table will shew at 
one view the number of the bishops and clergy in 
each state, and opposite to them the number of the 
square miles over which their charge extends, and 
of the masses for whom they labour. As a gene- 
ral conclusion, we may see that these 22 bishops 
and 1202 clergy are ministering among a mass of 

1 Church Alrnar^c for 1844 : New York. 



POPULATION. 



399 



human beings, of all colours of belief, or of no belief 
at all, amounting to above 1 7 millions, who are scat- 
tered over an extent of above one million of square 
miles. 



Bishops. 


Clergy, j States. 


Population. 


Square miles. 


0* 


6 | Maine 


501,793 


32,000 





10 i New Hampshire 








284,574 


9.2S0 




29 


Vermont . . . 








291,948 


10,200 




5S 


Massachusetts 










637,699 


7,800 




25 


Rhode Island 










108. S30 


1,095 


1 


102 


Connecticut . 










310.015 


4.800 




202 


New York 










1,293,783 


21.751 




105 


Western New Yc 


rk 








1,135, 13S 


21,463 




47 


New Jersey . 










373,306 


6,600 




115 


Pennsylvania 










1,724,022 


46.000 




11 


Delaware . . 










78.085 


2.120 




93 


Maryland . . 










469,232 


10,930 




98 


Virginia . . 










1,239,797 


64.000 




32 


North Carolina 










753,110 


43.800 




49 


South Carolina 










594,398 


30,000 




62 


Ohio ... . 










1,519,467 


50.000 




14 


Georgia 












770.000 


58.000 




22 


Kentucky 












790,000 


40,000 




12 


Tennessee . 












829,210 


40.000 


Of 


11 

7 

24 


Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Michigan 












375.651 
351,176 
211,705 


48,000 
48,220 

55.000 


! 


10 
14 

4 


Alabama . 

Illinois 

Florida 












650,000 

474,404 

54,207 


46,000 
59,500 
87,750 


0? 


15 


Indiana 












6S3,317 


35,000 


05 i 10 Missouri . 












381,102 


64,000 


1 9 ! Wisconsin 












30,852 




OS 


4 | Iowa . . 












43,068 




oil 


2 


Arkansas 












95,642 


58,000 


22 


1202 




17,055,531 


1,001,309 


* Administ 


ered by the Bishop of Rhode 


Island. 


f Administered by the Bishop of Tennessee. 




j Administered by the Bishop of Louisiana. 




§ These three administered by the missionary bisho; 


) residing in 


Wisconsin. 




|| Administered by the Bishop of Tennessee. 





But another and a better measure of the influence 
of this body on the people of the west is afforded by 



400 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

its actual power over morals and opinion. Now, tried 
by this test, the conclusion does not differ greatly 
from that yielded by the last. Much, undoubtedly, 
it is doing, and has done. No where have the rest- 
less waters of the multitude of sects tossed them- 
selves in wilder madness than in the new world. 
The line of this history forbids any minute examina- 
tion of their state ; but the general aspect they pre- 
sent towards the Episcopalian body must be noticed. 1 
Between it and some of them there is as close an ap- 
proximation as there can be without union. To many 
of the separation, Christ's truth has never been pro- 
posed in any other form than that in which they hold 
it. In them there has been no stubborn rejection 
of a higher teaching, but rather a diligent use of 
all which has been vouchsafed to them. On such 
men the blessing of God has visibly rested. No 
unprejudiced observer can doubt that His grace has 
wrought through them His blessed work for multitudes 
around them. As their light increases, many of these 
join openly the Church's ranks. So far, indeed, does 
this migration prevail, that no less than one-half of 
the existing clergy, and even of the bishops 2 them- 
selves, have been won over from the sects. And 
this process seems still to be extending. At Boston 
there is now a striking revulsion of feeling towards 
the Church, of whose exclusively apostolical consti- 
tution many of the ministers amongst the sects are 

1 See preface, p. vii. 2 Caswall, p. 332. 



INCLINATION OF THE SECTS. 401 

now convinced. Their present position seems to be 
one which honest men cannot long consent to occupy. 
They " admit the doctrine of the visible Church, and 
the apostolical succession, and consequently the schism 
of which the original founders of their sect were 
guilty," but claim " prescription as effacing the flaw 
in the original deed." Thus it is their view, that 
sectarians, as a body, ought to reunite themselves to 
the Church, and that each individual ought to endea- 
vour earnestly to bring about this reunion ; whilst, 
without it, he would not be justified in straggling 
from his appointed place in the economy of Provi- 
dence. 1 This position seems to imply much the 
same dishonesty of mind as would lead an English 
Churchman, whose affections had been unhappily 
seduced to Rome, to remain within the English 
Church, seeking to bring her again under the bonds 
and corruption of the Papacy. Still, the effect on 
minds so disposed, of the institutions and doctrines 
after which they are reaching forth, cannot easily be 
overrated. 

Greatly is such an influence needed by these 
bodies. Abundant as some of them have no doubt 
been in faith and good works, yet, taken as a whole, 
they signally illustrate the absurdities and degrada- 
tion to which religious license, unlimited by fixed 
forms of belief, is ever prone to run. The rise and 

1 Letters from America, vol. ii. p. 100. The exact words 
are not given. 

M M 2 



402 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

prevalence of Mormonism is a startling fact in the 
religious history of man : and the same features, 
though less broadly marked, may be traced in many 
other quarters. Religion has always exhibited a 
tendency to wear out within a few generations where 
it has not been kept fixed and permanent by the 
external framework at first appointed by the Lord. 
That such has been the case in America we have 
a striking testimony in the writings of Bishop Chase, 
himself, as has been seen, 1 sprung from a dissenting 
family which had maintained its early principles with 
unusual faithfulness. " When the Puritans," he says, 2 
" by leaving the Church, broke the vessel, the oil 
was spilt upon the ground; and though some of it 
may be gathered in the sherds and burn brightly 
for a time, yet the flame soon expires, and all around 
is left in darkness." Such was the existing state 
of things he found in Vermont. Catechisms had 
been laid aside ; to teach their children the funda- 
mental principles of the Christian faith was deemed 
an infringement on their natural and inalienable 
rights ; by far the greater part had not been bap- 
tised; and the general ignorance was turned to their 
own purposes by various classes of infidels. 

Such has been too often, in the west, the unhappy 
progress of declining faith ; and so the ground has 
been left open for increasing evil. Every fantastic opi- 
nion which has disturbed the peace of Christendom 
has been re-produced in stronger growth on the other 

1 P. 327. 2 Reminiscences, p. 100. 



REVIVALS. 403 

side of the Atlantic. Division has grown up in all 
its rankness, and seeded freely on every side a new 
crop of errors. Even amongst those sects which 
have retained the largest measure of original truth, 
the effects of this state of things are visible. The 
history of their " Revivals," as they are termed, with 
their " new measures," " anxious seats," " itinerant 
evangelists," and (i protracted meetings," sometimes 
of forty days' continuance, 1 is little else than a record 
of the wildest extravagance, 2 which, in the judgment of 
the more sober even of their own body, "threatens 
to pour forth a host of ardent, inexperienced, impru- 
dent young men, to obliterate civilisation, and roll 
back the wheels of time to semi-barbarism, until New 
England of the west shall be burnt over, and religion 

1 Drs. Reed and Matheson's Visit, vol. ii. p. 40. 

2 The following extract from an unsuspected quarter will 
shew the true nature of these artificial heats. " A revival- 
preacher, after delivering a sermon, called on 'the anxious' 
to meet him in the lecture-room. About 200 obeyed. He 
called on them to kneel in prayer ; and he offered an alarming 
and terrific prayer. They arose. * As many of you,' he said, 
1 as have given yourselves to God in that prayer, go into the 
new-convert room.' Upwards of twenty went. ' Now,' he said 
to the remainder, ' let us pray.' He prayed again in like man- 
ner. He then challenged those who had given themselves to 
God in that prayer to go into the new-convert room. Another 
set followed. This was repeated four times. The next morn- 
ing he left the town, having previously sent a notice to the 

newspapers, stating that Mr. had preached there last 

night, and that 61 converts professed religion." — Drs. Reed 
and Matheson's Visit, vol. ii, p. 29. 



404 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

disgraced and trodden down, as in some parts of New 
England it was done eighty years ago, when laymen 
and women, Indians and negroes, male and female, 
preached and prayed, and exhorted, until confusion 
itself became confounded." " This will unavoidably 
produce infidels, scoffers, unitarians, and universal- 
ists, on every side, increasing the resistance seven- 
fold to evangelical doctrine." 1 

This has been already the fruit of these fierce 
excitements. The children of " the pilgrims" have 
openly cast off their fathers' creed, and glory in doc- 
trines which were marked out in the days of New 
England's settlement for the direst anathema. In 
Massachusetts 2 the Socinians have 130 societies and 
110 ministers : in the town of Boston their congrega- 
tions average from 600 to 100. Theirs, "if not the 
religion of the numerical majority, is that of the opu- 
lent and official classes, who compose the aristocracy 
of the city. .... It is said, indeed, that with what- 
ever religion men begin life, when they get very rich 
and withdraw from active business, they" 3 join this 
party. In its tenets they find repose from the extra- 
vagant excitement of the other sects ; they are freely 
allowed such unlimited measures of infidelity or 
doubt as suit their own inclinations ; and they find 
themselves surrounded by those w T ho take the lead 

1 Letters from Dr. Beecher, — Reed and Matheson, vol. ii. 
pp. 34, 35. 

2 Reed and Matheson, vol. ii. p. 60. 

3 Buckingham's America, vol. iii. p. 450. 



TENDENCY TO SOCINIANISM. 405 

in every walk of social life. This state of things 
has long been growing up : the Church w T as too 
weak around the Puritans to keep them by its in- 
direct influence to the foundations of the faith ; and 
no sect that has ever yet arisen has possessed, within 
itself, the gift of permanence. Here the declension 
began early ; and so gradually did their deadly error 
overspread them, that Boston was not conscious of 
the change until it was incautiously disclosed by an 
English brother. It was then found, on inquiry, 
that " in Boston every thing was gone except the old 
South Meeting ; and, within a radius of fifteen miles, 
not ten ministers could be found of the Congregational 
order holding the \ truth as it is in Jesus.'" 1 

Against such declensions the presence of the 
Church is, under the blessing of Almighty God, an 
appointed safeguard. From the excitements which 
sweep at times over the sects, burning all to-day 
with an intemperate heat, and leaving all behind them 
waste and bare, even those amongst her pastors 
have been free, who, from warmth of natural tem- 
per or doctrinal views, have most addressed them- 
selves to the religious feelings of their flock. 2 And 
thus not only have they withheld from their own 
people these withering blights, but they have done 
much for all denominations round them. It was the 
remark of a Socinian gentleman from Massachusetts, 
as floating down the Connecticut river (in 1834), 

1 Reed and Matheson. ut sup. 

2 Life of Bp. Moore of Virginia, by Dr, Henshaw, p. 101. 



406 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

he noticed the Episcopal churches on each side the 
stream, " If those churches had been in Massachu- 
setts, there would have been few Unitarians." 1 The 
influence thus exercised can scarcely be over-rated. 
It breaks out visibly in smaller things, — as in the 
universal observance of Good Friday in Connecticut, 
from deference to Churchmen, 2 — and in greater mat- 
ters is always in action. The fixed creed of the 
Church, its settled liturgy, its decent and reverend 
forms, its educated ministry, its tone of practical rea- 
lity ; these are felt continually as restraints to some, 
and patterns to others. Amidst the madness of the 
angry waves, one bark holds its anchorage, and be- 
comes to those around it a witness for fixedness and 
truth. 

On the general character of society it exerts 
continual influence. Throughout the states it ranks 
amongst its members those who, from position and 
superior education, must ultimately fix the standard 
of feeling : and against some of the great evils which 
infect American society it has raised its solemn and 
not wholly ineffectual protest. 

Thus, to take one example : duels, such as bar- 
barous times can scarcely parallel, are not uncommon 

in America. Utterly unchristian as are those we know 

j 

in England, they are wholly of another character from 
these, of which vengeance and the thirst for blood are 
undisguised features. How little public opinion has 

1 Caswall's America, p. 149. 2 lb. p. 145. 



DUELS. 407 

as yet condemned them, a single narrative will shew. 
It is a rule of Congress that when any member dies 
during the sitting of the houses, he shall be honoured 
w r ith a public funeral. During the winter session 
of 1838, two members of the house of representa- 
tives at Washington quarrelled, and met to fight a 
duel. Rifles were, as is usual, the selected weapons. 
At a distance of eighty yards they exchanged fire 
without effect. After an hour's pause they were 
placed again, and each taking deliberate aim, fired a 
second time with the same result, A longer pause 
than the preceding followed, during which it was 
arranged, that if at the next fire neither party were 
killed or wounded, the distance between them should 
be shortened. No such precaution, however, was 
needful to secure the necessary bloodshed, for at 
the next fire the receiver of the challenge fell, and 
died within five minutes. Three days later the 
senators and w T hole population of the town, male, 
and female, " the ladies thronging the galleries," 
filled the hall of representatives, to honour the 
fallen duellist with a public funeral. At twelve 
o'clock the Speaker of the house was seated in the 
chair, the bier before him, whilst the members, the 
judges of the supreme court, the heads of depart- 
ments, the secretaries of state, and the president and 
vice-president of the United States, lined the hall 
around the coffin. Then came the mummery of re- 
ligion, with " appropriate extemporaneous prayers 
from the chaplain of the senate," and then " a funeral 



408 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

address by the chaplain of the house of represen- 
tatives." 1 Both the chaplains were Methodists of 
different kinds ; and it was but a sorry sacrifice to 
violated principle, that the honour of the public 
funeral should be clouded by an unavoidable cen- 
sure upon duelling, in the funeral address. Far dif- 
ferent has been the conduct of the Church as to this 
system of detestable enormities. As early as 1808, 
convention had resolved, "/That the ministers of 
this Church ought not to perform the funeral service 
in the case of any person who shall give or accept 
a challenge to a duel." 2 This raised a new stan- 
dard, and from this we do not find them shrinking. 
Such an instance stands on record in Bishop Ho- 
bart's correspondence. " I have been severely tried" 
— one of his friends writes to him: " it has pleased 
the Almighty, in the order of His providence, to 
exact from me a proof of fidelity to His commands. 
Adversity has come on me in the hideous form of 
dishonour : it has struck me where I was most ex- 
posed For one accustomed, as I have been, 

to the applause of the world, on whose ear the voice 
of censure has scarcely ever come in the slightest 
whisper, to be denounced by a man who has filled 
the second command in our Virginian army, and a 

1 J. S. Buckingham's America, vol. i. p. 272, 273. 

2 Journals of Convention of 1816, p. 254. This was modi- 
fied in the Convention, but only so far as to withdraw the ap- 
plication of the resolution from those who had since manifested 
penitence. 



DIVORCE. 409 

seat in the senate of the United States, as a hypo- 
crite and coward, without being allowed to repel the 
latter charge but by confirming the former .... to 
be thus persecuted, is a trial which has required all 

my piety to sustain without sinking beneath it 

I am justly though severely chastised: I bow sub- 
missively to the Cross, where my Saviour ignomini- 
ously expired. Blessed Jesus, inspire Thy poor fol- 
lower with the humility which illustrated Thy life, 
Thy sufferings, and Thy death." 1 

One such testimony against this unchristian cus- 
tom is beyond all price in a land so governed by 
opinion as the United States. 

These, and many more, are the favourable fea- 
tures of the picture. There are others of a differ- 
ent character, — and they must not be withheld. And 
to touch first on a subject which has always been 
an especial charge of the Christian Church ; she has 
not in America maintained the outworks of domestic 
purity, by guarding carefully the sanctity of holy 
matrimony. Divorces are allowed on slight and in- 
sufficient grounds. 2 To divorce his wife, or even to 
fail in the attempt to obtain a divorce from the state, 

1 M< Vickar's Life of Bishop Hobart, p. 457, 458. 

2 The facility with which divorces are obtained in some 
states is illustrated by a fact, mentioned to the author by a 
friend (the Rev. H. Caswall), which would be highly ludicrous, 
if it did not involve such serious considerations. An aged 
couple in Kentucky, remarkable for their long -continued do- 
mestic happiness, were marked out for a practical joke. A 
petition was sent in to the state legislature, praying, on some 

N N 



410 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

would not greatly impair the reputation, even of one 
in holy orders. On this point the Roman Catholics 
in America have maintained a Christian strictness on 
which the Protestant communion has never ventured. 
Allied to this are many kindred flaws; marriages 
are publicly allowed within some at least of the 
prohibited degrees ; the divorced are speedily re- 
married ; and their second nuptials labour under no 
reproach. Again, amongst out western brethren, the 
marriage-ceremonial is rarely performed within the 
church : a private room, and often a late hour in 
the day, are its usual place and time, to the grievous 
loss of reverential decency. 

And now to turn to a subject less exclusively 
ecclesiastical. In forming an estimate of the moral 
influence of the Episcopalian body, we cannot fail to 
notice its bearing on the treatment of the coloured 
race. This is, in America, the great question of the 
present generation : socially, politically, morally, re- 
ligiously, there is none which can compare with it. 
Never in the history of any people was the righteous 
retribution of the holy and living God more dis- 
tinctly marked than in the manifold evils which now 
trouble America for her treatment of the African 
race. Like all other sinful courses, it has brought 
in, day by day, confusion and entanglement into all 

trivial ground, for a divorce. The bill passed unopposed ; and 
in three weeks, to their horror, they found themselves divorced; 
they absolutely separated, the wife returning to her friends, and 
were afterwards solemnly re -married. 



EVILS OF SLAVERY. 411 

the relations of those contaminated by it. It is the 
cause which threatens to disorganise the union ; it 
is the cause which upholds the power of mobs and 
" Lynching;" it is the occasion of bloodshed and vio- 
lated law ; it is, throughout the south, the destroyer 
of family purity, the hindrance to the growth of civi- 
lisation and refinement ; it is the one weak point of 
America as a nation, exposing her to the deadliest 
internal strife, that of an internecine war, whenever 
a foreign enemy should find it suit his purpose to 
arm the blacks against their masters. Further, like 
all other great and established evils, it is most diffi- 
cult to devise any escape out of the coils which it has 
already wound around every civil and social institu- 
tion ; whilst every day of its permitted continuance 
both aggravates the evil and increases the difficulty 
of its ultimate removal. This, then, is exactly one 
of those sore evils of which the Church of Christ is 
the appointed healer. She must, in His name, rebuke 
this unclean spirit : she who has been at all times the 
best adjuster of the balance between the rich and 
poor, between those who have and those who want ; 
she who has redressed the wrongs of those who have 
no helper ; she who, wherever she has settled, has 
changed slaves or serfs, by whatever title they are 
known, into freemen and peasants; — she must do 
this in the west, or the salt of the earth hath lost its 
savour, and is given over, with all things around, 
to the wasting of that utter and extreme corruption 
which she should have arrested. 



412 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Now, to see how far the Church has fulfilled this 
her vocation, we must have distinctly before us the 
real posture of this question in America. Of the 
twenty-six states, thirteen are slave- states ; admitting, 
that is, within their own borders, the institution of 
slavery as a part of their institutions ; and of these, 
five — Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and, 
in part, Tennessee — are slave-selling, whilst those 
south of them are slave-buying states. 

It will, therefore, be seen at once, that in the 
various districts of the union widely different parts of 
the system are at work. But its curse is upon all. 
Chiefly does it rest upon the south. There, to his 
own, and little less to his master's degradation, the 
slave is held in direct personal bondage, and ac- 
counted merely as a chattel. Hence, at the caprice 
of his owner, he is treated not unfrequently with 
fearful cruelty : though these, it may be granted, 
are not the ordinary cases ; since except under the 
impulses of passion, no rational owner will misuse 
his own chattels. It is not, therefore, for these 
instances of cruelty, fearful as they occasionally 
are, that the system will be chiefly odious in the 
Christian's eyes. 1 Nor will it be from any notions 

1 Not to quote any of those occasional barbarities which may- 
be turned in some measure aside as extreme cases, it is impos- 
sible to deny the ordinary cruelty of the system, when every 
southern newspaper abounds in such advertisements as these : 
" Ten dollars reward for my woman Siby, very much scarred 
about the neck and ears by whipping." Mobile Commercial Ad- 



REAL EVIL OF SLAVERY. 413 

of the abstract and inalienable rights of man. On 
these, in their common signification of the possession 
of political power, we do not touch ; it is with the 
want of personal freedom we are concerned, nor is 
it needful to assert, that slavery is, under all circum- 
stances, directly forbidden by the law of God. It 
is enough for our purpose, that, as administered in 
America, it is a violation of the Christian precept, 
" Honour all men." That by its denial of all family 
life, its necessary irreligion, and its enforced igno- 
rance, it deprives the slave of the privileges of re- 
deemed humanity, and is directly opposed to the 
idea of the Christian revelation. To maintain this 
ground it is not necessary to assert that no slaves 
are happy in their servitude. For the happiest slave 
in American servitude is the greatest proof of the 
evil of the system. He is most utterly debased 

vertiser. — " Committed to jail, a negro slave ; his back is very 
badly scarred." Planters' Intelligencer, Sept 26, 1838. — "Run- 
away, negress Caroline ; had on a collar with one prong turned 
down." Bee, Oct. 27, 1837. — " Detained at the police-jail the 
negro wench Myra ; has several marks of lashing, and has irons 
on her feet." Bee, Ju?ie9, 1838. — " Runaway, a negro woman 
and two children ; a few days before she went off, I burnt her 
with a hot iron on the left side of her face : I tried to make the 
letter M." Standard, July 18, 1838. — " Brought to jail, John 

, left ear cropt." Macon Telegraph, Dec. 25, 1837. — 

u Runaway, a negro, name Humbledon ; limps on his left foot, 
where he was shot a few weeks ago while a runaway." Vicks- 
burg Register, Sept. 5, 1838. — " Runaway, a black woman, 
has a scar on her back and right arm, caused by a rifle -ball." 
Natchez Courier, June 15, 1832. 
N N 2 



414 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

by it who can be happy in such a state. What 
that state is is plain enough. The common language 
of the slave-states, which has given to all those who 
labour the title of " mean whites," is abundant proof 
of their own estimate of slavery. But, further, as a 
general rule, the slave is not happy. The advo- 
cates of the system confess this in a thousand ways. 
Their columns of advertisements for runaways, their 
severe laws against those who aid or harbour fugi- 
tives, their occasional gifts of liberty to slaves who 
have wrought some great act of public good, their 
fierce jealousy of all speech or action which threatens 
ever so remotely their property in man, all bespeak 
the same secret conviction : — they do know the mi- 
sery of slavery. The testimony of the Canadian fer- 
ryman, 1 who described the leap of the escaped slave, 
when the boat reaches the British shore, as unlike 
any other, is not more directly to the point. 

Accordingly, the master-evil of the south is, that 
the slaves are not treated as having souls ; they are 
often petted, often treated like spoiled children, never 
as men. On this point there is no dispute. " Ge- 
nerally speaking they are a nation of heathen in the 
midst of the land. They are without hope and with- 
out God in the world." 2 " They have no Bible to 
read by their own firesides ; they have no family- 
altars ; and when in affliction, sickness, or death, 

1 Retrospect of Western Travel, vol. i. p. 114. 

2 Sermon by Rev. C. C. Jones, preached in Georgia before 
two associations of planters, 1831. 



MORALS OF SLAVERY. 415 

they have no minister to address to them the conso- 
lations of the gospel." 1 " They are destitute of the 
privileges of the gospel, and ever will be, under the 
present state of things. They may justly be con- 
sidered the heathen of this country, and will bear 
a comparison with heathen in any country in the 
world." 2 " Throughout the bounds of the Charleston 
synod there are at least one hundred thousand slaves, 
speaking the same language as the whites, who have 
never heard of the plan of salvation by a Redeemer." 3 
And this is the fruit of no accident, — it is inherent in 
the system. The black must be depressed below the 
level of humanity to be kept down to his condition. 
On this system his master dare not treat him as a 
man. To teach slaves to read is forbidden under the 
severest penalties in almost every slave-state. In 
North Carolina, to teach a slave to read or write, or 
give him any book (the Bible not excepted), is pun- 
ished with thirty-nine lashes or imprisonment, if the 
offender be a free negro ; with a fine of 200 dollars if 
he be a white. In Georgia this fine is 500 dollars ; 
and the father is not suffered to teach his own half- 
caste child to read the Scriptures. 4 

1 Report in Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, 1833. 

2 Report of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to 
whom was referred the subject of the religious instruction of 
the coloured population, 1834. 

3 Charleston S. C. Observer. 

4 Caste and Slavery in the American Church, p. 27 ; a 
noble and heart -stirring protest. 



416 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

The moral state of such a population need not be 
depicted. The habit of despising the true redeemed 
humanity in those around them grows always upon the 
licentious and the covetous, as they allow themselves 
to use their fellows as the mere instruments of their 
gain or pleasure: and in the slave-states this evil 
habit reigns supreme. The quadroon 1 girls are edu- 
cated in the south to live in bonds of shame with 
their white masters. With the slave-population itself 
the licentiousness of the whites is utterly unbridled : 
and by this, all the ties of nature are dissolved. 
Family-life amongst the slaves cannot exist ; its 
fountains are always liable to be poisoned by arbi- 
trary power. White fathers view their own slave- 
born children as chattels. They work, they sell 
them. By law they cannot teach them, or set them 
free ; for the jealousy of slave-state legislation lays 
it down as a first principle, that every slave must 
have a master " to see to him." 

Here, then, in brief, is the curse of the southern- 
most or slave-buying states ; — the holding property 
in man, keeping men in servile bondage, using per- 
sons as things, redeemed men as soul-less chattels ; 
— this is its essence. Here the testimony of the 
Church must be against this first vicious principle. 
This has been the example set to God's witnesses 
in this generation by their fathers in the faith. They 
protested against such dominant iniquities, and they 

1 The mixed breed of the third generation. 



SLAVE-BREEDING STATES. 417 

delivered their own souls, and saved us their children 
from the eating canker of a blood-stained inheritance. 
" Let no man from henceforth," said the Christian 
Council of London, in 1102, l " presume to carry on 
that wicked traffic, by which men in England have 
been hitherto sold like brute animals." This must 
be the Church's rule on the banks of the Mississippi, 
as it was on those of the Thames. So much for the 
extreme south. 

As we come one degree northward, other fea- 
tures meet us. In the slave-selling states there is 
added to the evils of the south the execrable trade of 
breeding slaves for sale. By it " the ' Ancient Domi- 
nion' is converted into one grand menagerie, where 
men are reared for the market like oxen for the sham- 
bles." 2 This is no figure of speech. The number of 
slaves exported, from Virginia alone, for sale in the 
southern states, in one year, 1835-36, amounted to 
forty thousand ; 3 whilst those imported from all quar- 
ters into the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, and Arkansas, were reckoned in the year 1836 
as not less than 25, 000. 4 " Dealing in slaves," says 

1 " Concilium Londinense, a.d. 1102, reg. Anglise Hen. I. 
3, statutum est : xxviii. Nequis illud nefarium negotium, 
quo hactenus homines in Anglia solebant velut bruta animalia 
venundari, deinceps ullatenus facere prsesumat." — Wilkins, 
Concilia, vol. i. p. 383. 

2 Speech of Ephraim Jefferson Randolph in the legislature 
of Virginia in 1832. 

3 Virginia Times. 4 Natchez Courier. 



418 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

a Baltimore newspaper 1 of 1 829, "has become a large 
business ; establishments are made in several places 
in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like 
cattle : these places of deposit are strongly built, and 
well supplied with iron thumb-screws and gags." 

The abominations of this trade must not pollute 
these pages. They may be readily conceived. But 
as a necessary part of such a traffic, an internal slave- 
trade, with its well-known horrors, recommences. 
Here are slave-auctions, with all their instant degra- 
dation, and all their consequent destruction of family 
and social life. 2 Here are droves of chained negroes 
marched under the whip, two and two, from the 
breeding district of Virginia to the labour-markets 
of Georgia and Alabama. 

1 The Baltimore (Maryland) Register. 

2 One incident will tell this whole tale. " A gentleman of 
Virginia sold a female slave. The party professing to buy not 
being prepared to make the necessary payment, the slave was 
to be re-sold. A concealed agent of the trade bought her and 
her two children, as for his own service ; where her husband, 
also a slave in the town, might visit her and them. Both the 
husband and wife suspected that she would be privately sent 
away. The husband, in their common agony, offered to be sold, 
that he might go with her. This was declined. He resolved 
on the last effort, of assisting her to escape. That he might lay 
suspicion asleep, he went to take leave of her and his children, 
and appeared to resign himself to the event. This movement 
had its desired effect ; suspicion was withdrawn both from him 
and his wife, and he succeeded in emancipating them. Still, 
what was to be done with his treasure, now he had obtained 
it ? Flight was impossible, and nothing remained but conceal- 



SLAVERY A MATTER OF STATE-LEGISLATION. 419 

Here, then, as in the farther south, the testi- 
mony of the Church must be uncompromising and 
explicit. No motives of supposed expediency, no 
possible amount of danger, can justify her silence. 
She is set to bear a witness ; a witness against 
the evils round her ; a witness at all hazards ; a 
witness to be at any time attested, if so it needs 
must be, by bearing any amount of persecution. 
She and she only can do this. The exceeding jea- 
lousy of the several states makes them resent with 
peculiar warmth any interference from without. 
The regulation of its internal concerns, and so the 
whole continuance and system of southern slavery, 
is solely under the jurisdiction of the several states. 

ment ; and concealment seemed hopeless, for no place would be 
left unsearched, and punishment would fall on the party who 
should give them shelter. However, they were missing ; and 
they were sought for diligently, but not found. Some months 
afterwards, it was casually observed that the floor under a slave's 
bed (the sister of the man), looked dirty and greasy. A board 
was taken up, and there lay the mother and her children on 
the clay, and in an excavation of three feet by five ! It is 
averred that they had been there, in a cold and enclosed space, 
hardly large enough for their coffin (buried alive there), for six 
months ! 

' ( This is not all. The agent was only provoked by this 
circumstance ! He demanded the woman ; and though every 
one was clamorous to redeem her and return her to her hus- 
band, he would not sell ! She was taken to his slave-pen, and 
has disappeared ! The man — most miserable man ! — still exists 
in the town." — Drs. Reed and Matheson, ut supra, vol. ii. 
p. 188. 



420 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Congress cannot mitigate, much less abolish it. It 
can come before Congress only incidentally, — as, 
for instance, on the question of admitting a new 
slave-state into the union. Even moral influence 
from without is bitterly resented by the south. 
This is its ground of quarrel with the abolition- 
societies ; with which the general government has 
so far sympathised as to leave unredressed the vio- 
lation of the southern post-office, whereby abolition- 
papers are uniformly excluded from the south. 
Thus, at this moment, improvement can only arise 
from a higher standard of internal principle on this 
great question. This, it is the business of the 
Church to create. She must assert her Catholic 
character on behalf of these unhappy cast-aways. 
In other respects, there is no country upon earth so 
fitted by predisposing elements for uniting in one 
visible body all the company of Christ's redeemed. 
Gathered, as they are, from all countries, Americans 
are made partakers, even from natural causes, of 
a common political and social life. The strong le- 
thargic common sense of the Dutch and the gay vi- 
vacity of the French, the phlegm of the German and 
the buoyant thoughtlessness of the Irish, the shrewd 
money -getting temper of the Yankee and the hospit- 
able elegance of the southern gentleman, — are all here 
fused into one common mass. From this universal 
brotherhood the African alone is shut altogether out. 
Him the Church must take by the hand, and owning 
him as one of Christ's body, must lead him into the 



DOES THE CHURCH PROTEST? 421 

family of man. Not that she is bound to preach 
insurrection and rebellion. Far from it. It is quite 
easy to enforce upon the slave his duties, under a 
system, the unrighteousness of which, is, at the same 
time, clearly stated. His bonds are illegal ; but it 
is God's arm, and not his own violence, which must 
break them. Let the clergy of the south preach sub- 
mission to the slave, if at the same time they declare 
to his master that these, for whom Christ died, are now 
no longer slaves, but brethren beloved ;* and that a 
system which withholds from them their Christian 
birthright is utterly unlawful ; that it is one which 
the master, not the slave, is bound to set himself 
honestly to sweep away. Above all should they, 
at any cost and by any sacrifice, protest in life and 
by act against this grievous wrong. The greater the 
cost, and the more painful the sacrifice, the clearer 
will be their testimony, and the more it will avail : 
to them it is given not only to believe in Christ, 
but also to suffer for His sake. 

What witness, then, has as yet been borne by 
the Church in these slave-states against this almost 
universal sin ? How has she fulfilled her vocation ? 
She raises no voice against the predominant evil ; 
she palliates it in theory ; and in practice she shares 
in it. The mildest and most conscientious of the 
bishops of the south are slave-holders themselves. 
Bishop Moore of Virginia writes to Bishop Ravens- 

1 " Not now as a servant (lit. a slave, dov\os), but above a 
servant, a brother beloved." — Philemon 16. 
o o 



4:22 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

croft : ] " The good and excellent girl presented to 
my daughter by Mrs. Ravenscroft paid the debt 
of nature on the 4th. " She was treated, it is 
true, with all the indulgence which she could re- 
ceive, but still, favourite as she was, she was a 
slave ; and, after her death, was laid " in the co- 
loured burial-ground, which is not enclosed, and 
therefore much exposed, and where the grave was 
liable to be disturbed." This is no rare instance. 
The Bishop of Georgia has openly proposed to main- 
tain " the Mont-Pelier Institute " by the produce 
of slave-labour ; and " The Spirit of Missions," 
edited with the sanction of the Church, and under 
the eye of the bishop (Onderdonk) of New York, 
proposes to endow a mission-school in Louisiana, 
with a plantation to be worked by slaves, who 
should be encouraged to redeem themselves by 
extra hours of labour, before day in the morning 
and after night in the evening ; and should, when 
thus redeemed, be transported to Liberia, and the 
price received for them laid out in " purchasing in 
Virginia or Carolina a gang of people who may be 
nearly double the number of those sent away." 2 

Nor are these merely evil practices into which, 
unawares and against their principles, these men have 
fallen. In a sermon preached before the Bishop of 
North Carolina in 1834, and published with his spe- 
cial commendation, it is openly asserted, that " no 

1 Life of Bishop Moore, p. 282. 

2 Caste and Slavery, p. 34. 



EFFECT OF SLAVERY OX THE FREE STATES. 423 

man or set of men are entitled to pronounce slavery 
wrong ; and we may add, that as it exists in the pre- 
sent day it is agreeable to the order of Divine Pro- 
vidence;" whilst the Bishop of South Carolina, 1 in an 
address to the convention of his diocese, denounced 
" the malignant philanthropy of abolition." 

Such are the fearful features of the life of Church- 
men in the south. Nor is it any real lessening of 
this guilt to say that it is shared by all the Christian 
sects. The charge is, indeed, far too nearly true. 
There is no doubt that the evils of the system may 
be found still ranker and more gross amidst the pre- 
vailing sects of Baptists, Independents, Methodists, 
and Presbyterians. 2 But this is no excuse. It is 
the first duty of the Church to reprove the sins of 
others, not to adopt them into her own practice ; to 
set, and not to take the tone. The cruelty of their 
tender mercies should lead her to speak out more 
plainly ; it should force her zealously to cleanse 
herself from their stain, and then fearlessly leave the 
issue to her God. But she is silent here ; and to 
her greater shame it must be added, that there are 
sects 3 which do maintain the witness she has feared 
to bear. 

1 Bishop Bowen. 

2 Vide Slavery and the Internal Slave-trade in America, 
pp. 133-145, for horrors with which these pages shall not be 
polluted. 

3 The Quakers, and four small sects, the Reformed Pres- 
byterians, United Brethren, Primitive Methodists, and Eman- 



424 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

But further, as has been already said, this cling- 
ing curse reaches even to the free states of the 
north, though it assumes in them another form. In 
them it leads to the treatment of the coloured race 
with deep and continual indignity. They cannot be 
held in personal bondage, but they are of the servile 
class ; they may be claimed as runaways, and thus 
dragged, if not kidnapped, to southern slavery. 

A mingled scorn and hatred of the coloured man 
pervades every usage of society. In the courts of 
law his testimony is not equally received with the 
white man's evidence ; republican jealousy forgets 
its usual vigilance, in order to deny him his equal 
vote ; he may be expelled with insult from the 
public vehicle ; he must sit apart in the public 
assembly; and though no tinge of remaining shade 
may darken his cheek, yet a traditional descent 
from coloured blood will make it impossible for 
him to wed with any of the European race. Even 
in the fierce heat of the " revivals" this supreme 
law of separation is never for a moment over- 

cipation Baptists. — Slavery and the Internal Slave-trade in 
America, p. 132. 

The annual conference of the United Brethren of Maryland 
and Virginia passed, in 1839, the following resolution. " It 
appeared in evidence that Moses Michael was the owner of a 
female slave, which is contrary to the discipline of our Church. 
Conference therefore resolved, that unless brother Michael 
manumit or set free such slave in six months, he no longer be 
considered a member of our Church.' ' — American Churches 
the Bulwark of Slavery, p. 3. 



THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 425 

looked. There are different " pens 5 ' for the white 
and coloured subjects of this common enthusiasm. 
On all these points feeling runs higher in the free 
north than in the slave-states of the south. There 
the dominion of the master is supreme, and he can 
venture when it pleases him to treat his slave with 
any degree of intimacy ; for the beast of the field 
might, with as high a probability as he, claim equal 
rights with man. But in the north, where the co- 
loured race are free and often rich, the galling in- 
sults of caste are needful to keep up the separation 
between blood and blood ; and here therefore, more 
than any where, its conventional injustice is supreme ; 
here, too, by an enforced silence as to the crimes of 
southern slavery, a guilty fellowship in its enormi- 
ties is too commonly established. 

Against these evils, then, the Church must here 
testify ; she must proclaim that God hath made of 
one blood all nations of the earth ; she must protest 
against this unchristian system of caste ; her lips 
must be unsealed to denounce God's wrath against 
the guilty customs of the south. And what has been 
her conduct 1 If we seek to test her real power 
over men's hearts by asking what her influence has 
been, we shall rate it low indeed . No voice has 
come forth from her. The bishops of the north sit 
in open convention with their slave-holding brethren, 
and no canon proclaims it contrary to the discipline 
of their Church to hold property in man and treat 
him as a chattel. Nay, further, the worst evils of 
o o 2 



426 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the world have found their way into the Church. 
The coloured race must worship apart ; they must 
not enter the white man's church ; or if they do, they 
must be fenced off into a separate corner. In some 
cases their dust may not moulder in the same ceme- 
tery. Whilst " all classes of white children volun- 
tarily attend the Sunday-schools on terms of perfect 
equality," 1 any mixture of African blood will ex- 
clude the children of the wealthiest citizen. Recent 
events have shewn that all this is not the evil fruit 
of an old custom slowly wearing itself out; but that 
it springs from a living principle which is daily 
finding for itself fresh and wider developments. 

The General Theological Seminary, founded, as 
we have seen, at New York under the superintend- 
ence of the whole Church, was designed to secure 
a general training for all its presbyters. " Every 
person producing to the faculty," so ran its statutes, 
" satisfactory evidence of his having been admitted 
a candidate for holy orders, with full qualifications, 
according to the canons of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States, shall be received as a 
student of the seminary." 2 Curiosity once prompted 
the question to Bishop Hobart, the founder of 
the seminary, " whether this wide rule embraced 
coloured candidates?" " They would be admitted," 
was his answer, " as a matter of course and with- 

1 Caswall, p. 297. 

2 Statutes of the General Theological Seminary, chap. vii. 
sec. 1. See Act of Incorporation, 1836, p. 16. 



GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 427 

out doubt." Such, alas, is not the rule of his suc- 
cessor in the bishop's seat. In June 1839, Alex- 
ander Crummell applied for admission ; he came 
from three years' study at the Oneida Institute, 
from sharing equal rights with one hundred white 
students ; he brought with him a character which, 
it was conceded, would warrant his admission if 
it could be right to admit a coloured man at all : 
he was rejected for this single fault ; one bishop 
(Doane) alone being found to protest against the 
step. Three years before, a similar injustice had 
been wrought. 1 Both remain to this day unre- 

I The diary of the young man then rejected tells so simply 
all the tale, that it is printed here from " Caste and Slavery," 
pp. 14, 15 : — 

II Oct. 10. — On Wednesday last I passed my examination 
before the faculty of the seminary, and was thereupon admitted 
a member of the school of the prophets. 

" Oct. 11. — I called upon the bishop, and he was dis- 
satisfied with the step I had taken in entering the seminary. 
Seems to apprehend difficulty from my joining the commons ; 
and thinks that the south, from whence they receive much sup- 
port, will object to my entering. 

u Thus far I have met with no difficulty from the students, 
but have been kindly treated. I have thought it judicious, 
however, to leave the commons for the present. 

M As far as in me lies I will, in my trouble, let all my actions 
be consistent with my Christian profession ; and instead of giv- 
ing loose to mortified feelings, will acquiesce in all things ; but 
this acquiescence shall not in the least degree partake of the 
dogged submissiveness which is the characteristic of an inferior. 

u My course shall be independent, and then, if a cruel pre- 
judice will drive (me) from the holy threshold of the school 



428 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

dressed. The Church fears to lose the contributions 
of the south ; she fears to raise the mobs of Phila- 

of piety, I, the weaker, must submit and yield to the superior 
power. Into thy hands ever, O God, I commit my cause. 

" Oct. 12. — At 9 a. m, I called on our spiritual father 
again, and sought advice in relation to my present embarrass- 
ing circumstances. He gave me plainly to understand that it 
would be advisable, in his opinion, for me not to apply for 
a regular admission into the seminary, and, although I had 
taken a room, and even become settled, yet to vacate the room, 
and silently withdraw myself from the seminary. He further 
said that I might recite with the classes, and avail myself of the 
privileges of the institution, but not consider myself in the light 
of a regular member. Never, never will I do so ! 

" The reasons of the bishop for this course are as follows : 
11 ' That the seminary receives much support and many 
students from the south, and consequently if they admit co- 
loured men to equal privileges with the whites in the institu- 
tion, the south will refuse to aid (it), and (will) use their 
influence to keep all from the seminary south of the Potomac. 
As head of the seminary, and knowing the feelings and pre- 
judices of the south, he could not hazard my fuller admission 
at such an expense. 

' l ' From the extreme excitability of public feeling on this 
delicate subject, and from my known and intimate connexion 
with the people of colour, there would be a high probability 
not only of bringing the institution into disrepute, but of ex- 
citing opposing sentiment among the students, and thus causing 
many to abandon the school of the prophets.' 

" I think these two form the reasons of the bishop against 
my being admitted. The course, however, he advises, viz. the 
being a ' hanger-on' in the seminary, is something so utterly 
repugnant to my feelings as a man, that I cannot consent to 
adopt it. If I cannot be admitted regularly, I leave the place ; 
but in leaving I will ever hold the utmost good feeling towards 



COLOURED CLERGYMEN. 429 

delphia ; she dare not stand between the dead and 
living : she cannot therefore stay the plague. Even 
when admitted to the sacred functions of the priest- 

the faculty and my friends. It is a cruel prejudice which drives 
me so reluctantly from the door, and makes even those who 
make high pretensions to piety and purity say to me, ' Stand 
thou there, for I am holier than thou.' 

" In this matter, however, I shall acquiesce as a Christian, 
but shall preserve the independent feelings of a man. My most 
devoted thanks are due to my dear friends, the Rev. Drs. Ber- 
rian and Lyell, for the earnest solicitude which they manifest 
for my welfare. They seem heartily to regret that any difficulty 
has arisen on the present subject. 

" Upon reflection, it is my present opinion that Bishop 
Onderdonk is wrong in yielding to the ' unrighteous prejudice' 
(his words) of the community. If the prejudice be wrong, I 
think he ought to oppose it without regard to consequences. 
If such men as he countenance it, they become partakers with 
the transgressors. He says, by and by Providence will open 
the way ; but will Providence effect the change miraculously ? 
We cannot expect it. He will, however, effect by appointed 
means, and these means ought to be resorted to by His in- 
struments — men. And what men more suitable than men high 
in office, high in public favour, high in talents ? Particularly 
should men commissioned to preach the Gospel, which teaches 
mercy, righteousness, and truth, enter upon the work. What 
makes my case more aggravating and dreadful, is, that the 
bishop says, that even admitting I have no African blood in 
me, yet my identity with the people of colour will bar the door 
of the seminary against me. Horrid inconsistency ! 

" Oct. 13. — Called on the bishop yesterday, and had a final 
interview with him on this mortifying subject. His determi- 
nation was settled and fixed, that, from a sober consideration of 
all things, the interest of the seminary, the comfort of myself, 
and the ultimate good of my people, I had better silently with- 



430 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

hood, the coloured man is not the equal of his bre- 
thren. The Rev. Peter Williams, for years a New 
York presbyter, of blameless reputation, was, for this 
one cause, allowed no seat in the convention of his 
Church. Thus, again, a special canon of the diocese 
of Pennsylvania forbids the representation of the 
African Church at Philadelphia, and excludes the 
rector from a seat. 1 

Tried, then, by this test, what can we esteem the 
present influence of this body ? It plainly has not 
been conscious of possessing power to stand up in 
God's name and to rebuke the evil one ; it has not 
healed this sore wound, which is wasting the true 
social life of America. It is a time for martyrdom ; 
and the mother of the saints has scarcely brought 
forth even one confessor. 

To an Englishman this silence is the more emi- 

draw, and, agreeably to my plan, study privately with a clergy- 
man. He again, at this interview, suggested the plan of my 
embracing the privileges of the seminary without being regu- 
larly admitted ; to which I would not consent, as it would be 
both a sacrifice of the feelings of a man, which I felt not 
disposed to offer, and, further, a sacrifice of principle, to which. 
I am confident, the noble-minded among my people would not 
allow me to submit. 

" I cannot but conceive my case to be a veiy peculiar one. 
involving much difficulty, and one which will ultimately cause 
the guardians and controllers of this sacred institution to hang 
their heads for shame. This day I am driven, in the presence 
of all the students of the seminary, and the sight of high 
Heaven, from the school of the prophets.'' 

1 Caste and Slavery, p. 17. 



CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 431 

nently matter of the deepest pain, because he will 
at once admit that to his own people belongs the 
origin of that guilt in which the Church and nation 
of America are now entangled. So little has our co- 
lonial empire been administered on those principles 
for which our Church has witnessed, 1 that England 
forced upon her reluctant colonists the curse and 
crime of slave-holding institutions. Against remon- 
strance and resistance from the west, England thrust 
upon them this clinging evil. Freely do we take 
the shame of having first begun this course of crime; 
but the sense of this only makes us desire more ear- 
nestly that, through the blessing of that pure faith 
which also she received from us, this guilt and loss 
may be removed. 

Other symptoms shew that the mass of the po- 
pulation has not yet greatly felt the influence of the 
Episcopalian body. Few of the poor belong to it. 
It is the religion of the affluent and the respectable ; 
but by it as yet the gospel is not largely preached to 
the poor. The very aspect of the churches bespeaks 
as much. These vary from the rude building con- 
structed of unsawn logs, which first gem the solitude 
of the backwoods, up to the costly edifices of the city, 
of which the walls, " built of hammered bluestone 
trimmed with granite, rise forty feet above the ground, 
and in which the organ alone cost 1125/." 2 In some 
of the new cities of the west they have been built at 

1 Note, p. 416. 2 Caswall, p. 208. 



432 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

a cost of 12,600/. But they all bear one character. 
They are good specimens of what may be termed 
the modern Gothic. It would be difficult to find in 
the whole Episcopal communion throughout Ame- 
rica one specimen of that glorious style of religious 
architecture which is to be found in our cathedrals, 
and below them in so many of our parish-churches 
here in England. The one predominant idea in the 
churches of America is to obtain the largest number 
of pews, which, from fronting the pulpit, shall let at 
remunerating prices. This regulates every arrange- 
ment. The pulpit occupies one end of the building, 
the communion-table being thrust aside, and often 
consisting of no more than a narrow board which 
fronts the reading-desk. Instead of emulating the 
solemn grandeur of our ancient churches, 1 liberality 
here displays itself in the elegance and finish 2 of the 
internal decoration of the buildings. They are re- 
markable for the " comfort of their cushioned pews, 
carpeted floors, warm stoves, and, in lieu of the 
small circular pulpit of England, their spacious plat- 
forms, well furnished with the requisite cushions, dra- 
pery, and lights." Some of these churches " rather 
resemble splendid drawing-rooms than houses of wor- 
ship. Handsome carpets cover every part ; the pews 
are luxuriously cushioned in a manner calculated to 
invite repose ; while splendidly embroidered pulpit- 
hangings, superb services of communion-plate, and 

1 Caswall, p. 289. 

2 Buckingham's America, vol. iii. p. 472 ; vol. i. p. 190. 



WANT OF ENDOWMENTS. 433 

a profusion of silk and velvet, gilding and painting, 
excite the curiosity of the stranger more than his 
devotion. In these the poor man could hardly find 
himself at home." 1 

The natural effects of such a state of things 
are plainly to be traced. " Intellectual sermons and 
elegant composition are held in high esteem," and 
these " frequently" degenerate into the dressing-up 
of ordinary sentiment in a florid style which ap- 
proaches to bombast. 2 Hence the stranger finds in 
the house of prayer " a large congregation of gay 
and fashionable visitors, engaged in cold, formal, 
and ostentatious worship." 3 Hence such avowals as 
this by the venerable Bishop Griswold : " the evil 
most to be feared and most prevalent amongst us is 
lukewarmness. With shame must we acknowledge 
that we incline to be cold rather than hot. En- 
thusiasm is as rare in our churches as a scorching 
sun in a northern winter : the mercury of our zeal is 
constantly below the degree of temperate." 4 Hence, 
too, it follows, that the maintenance of a continual 
sacrifice of prayer and praise to God seems wholly 
foreign to the feelings of our brethren in the west. 
For whilst " weekly lectures are very frequent," 
and the whole temper of the people favours frequent 
public meetings, there was, in 1839, " no place in 

1 Caswall, p. 289. 2 Ibid. p. 296. 

3 Buckingham's America, vol. i. p. 276. 

4 Bishop Griswold on Prayer-Meetings. See Life of Bi- 
shop Moore, p. 93. 

P P 



434 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

America in which the service of the Church was per- 
formed daily, unless the General Theological Semi- 
nary at New York may be regarded as an exception." 1 

This must be to a great extent the result of their 
position. As a general rule, they possess no endow- 
ments. The building of a church is often a money- 
speculation ; the sale of pews is to cover the ex- 
penses of the managing committee ; the pew-holders 
are the parish, and they elect and pay the clergyman 
by an assessment on the pews. All this must ex- 
clude the poor. They cannot subscribe at first ; 
they cannot pay pew-rents ; they have no part there- 
fore in the matter. 2 The clergyman has no paro- 
chial charge, the parish no territorial existence ; the 
clergyman is the hired servant of the pew-owners to 
perform a certain work. Thus the poor are passed 
wholly by; they are the charge of no one. 

In New York, where the Episcopalian body is 

1 Caswall's America, p. 295. 

2 The practical effect of this may be gathered from the 
following supposed conversation between two of them, intro- 
duced into the " Lowell Offering," a miscellany composed by 
the ' ' factory girls' ' at the Manchester of America : — 

" Dorcas. The Gospel is an expensive luxury now, and 
those only who can afford to pay their four or six or more 
dollars a year can hear its truths 

" Rosina. Do not speak harshly, Dorcas . . . times have 

indeed changed . . . but circumstances also have changed 

It is true we cannot procure a year's seat in one of our most 
expensive churches for less than four present, weeks' wages." — 
Knight's Mind amongst the Spindles, p. 123. 



UNFAVOURABLE POSITION OF THE CLERGY. 435 

possessed of endowments, free churches have been 
opened for the poor. But these have not answered. 
The jealousy of poor republicans forbids their pro- 
fiting by such distinctive benefits. This, moreover, 
is here exasperated to the utmost by the established 
custom of allotting to " negroes and other coloured 
persons the privilege of occupying free seats by 
themselves, distinct from the rest of the congre- 
gation." 1 So does this curse of American society 
meet us anew at every turn. 

In another way also, this system grievously im- 
pairs the Church's strength. It keeps the clergyman 
in a state of servile dependence on his congregation. 
" There is not a man in his flock, however mean and 
unworthy, whom he does not fear; and if he happens 
to displease a man of importance, or a busy woman, 
there is an end of his peace." 2 This makes his 
witness often feeble and uncertain ; for hence fol- 
lows the temptation to truckle to popular opinion ; 
hence the Church's silence as to the treatment of the 
coloured race. By this, again, the general standard 
of clerical character is depressed. " More com- 
monly it is the lower order of talent which is found 
there ; and in a country where all depends on dis- 
play and present popular effect, it is an unenviable 
doom to be attached to that profession." 3 This also 
has made a constant change of sphere almost a con- 
dition of clerical life in the west. " Popularity is 

1 CaswalTs America, p. 282. 

2 Voice from America, p. 199. 3 Ibid. p. 194. 



436 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the measure of a clergyman's comfort in America ; 
and he is generally most popular at first." Then 
his support begins to flag, his maintenance is re- 
duced, or yielded in a manner painful to his feelings. 
Fie is forced to migrate : and thus there is ever- 
lasting change in the condition of the American 
clergy. They change ; the people change ; all is a 
round of change ; because all depends on the vo- 
luntary principle. 1 

All of these evils are found in their full vigour 
amidst the various sects. Amongst them the in- 
stability of popular favour is bridled by no external 
influence. But the absence of endowment brings 
the Church itself to a fearful degree under the same 
influence, and to that extent impairs its character 
and moral weight. 

That, under such a system, the clergy should be 
what they are in America is surely the fruit of God's 
especial mercy. In the midst of the busiest people 
upon earth, where all are getting or expecting to 
get money, there has been no want of young men 
ready to devote themselves to the service of their 
brethren, though they have no security of receiving 
even the necessary competence for ordinary domestic 
life, and are not led on by any possible expectation 

1 Voice from America, pp. 192, 193. It is well worth the 
most serious consideration of the American Church, whether 
the evil might not to a great extent be removed by the intro- 
duction of the principle of supporting their clergy by the col- 
lection of a common fund to be apportioned by the bishops. 



S0CINIAN TENDENCIES. 437 

of obtaining one amongst some few great prizes, or 
allured by the expectation of learned leisure, or pro- 
mised an opportunity of leading thereby a literary 
life. They choose their lot, knowing that in it their 
days must be spent in constant and exhausting la- 
bour, with the smallest earthly recompense. On 
such a ministry God's blessing must rest abundantly, 
and in its high character is, no doubt, found the 
practical escape from many evils inherent in the 
theory of the constitution of their Church. 

Here, then, we may form some judgment of the 
present influence of this body in America ; and if 
from this we may venture to anticipate its future 
progress, there is much ground for sanguine hope, 
not unmixed with reasonable fear. 

Its dangers can hardly be mistaken. The great 
stream of religious opinion in America sets towards 
the chill decencies of Socinian error. This is the 
natural tendency of a busy, growing, wealthy, self- 
governing people, and this has been eminently the 
tendency of the West. The New-England states have 
already fallen into the snare ; and from the revul- 
sions which follow the extravagance of revivals, as 
well as from other causes, these tenets are generally 
spreading. " This doctrine, " writes Jefferson in 
1822 from Virginia, " has not yet been preached to 
us, but the breeze begins to be felt. ... It will come, 
and drive before it the foggy mists which have so 
long obscured our atmosphere." 1 " That this will 

1 Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 362. 
p p 2 



438 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ere long be the religion of the majority, from north 
to south, I have no doubt." 1 " I confidently expect 
that the present generation will see it become the 
general religion of the United States." 2 

Exaggerated as were Jefferson's immediate ex- 
pectations, there can be no doubt that they point 
towards the real danger. The mercantile turn, even 
of religion, inclines in this direction. Where there is 
enough of a hovering tendency towards Christianity 
to lead to the erection of a new church in some 
newly settled or increasing neighbourhood, its fabric 
is divided out into a series of pews, on no other 
principle than how they will let to the greatest 
advantage. The minister is engaged on the same 
calculation. Even the doctrines to be preached 
are ruled by the same law. Hence we hear of such 
strange facts as that a Congregational population, 
having abandoned their old creed, hung long in 
doubt between electing a Socinian or Universalist 
teacher, and ended by addicting themselves to the 
Episcopal communion. 3 All of this is evidently 
highly unfavourable to the simple child-like faith 
which Christ's gospel requires ; it is all injurious 
to that earnest personal faith in the blood of Jesus 
as the only hope of lost sinners, without which even 
the most orthodox creed becomes a set of barren 
and unmeaning dogmas. 

And this tendency of the American temper is 

1 Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 367. 

2 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 369. 3 Caswall, p. 136. 



LATITUDINARIANISM. 439 

increased by the character of their political insti- 
tutions. Absolute indifference to all religious dis- 
tinction is the principle which lies at their root. 
They are full of a continual practical denial of the 
existence of any difference between truth and false- 
hood. It is not merely that all forms of worship 
and opinions are tolerated, although this is carried so 
far that even infidelity itself is treated with respect 
and deference, as one peculiar " form of religious 
opinion, being certainly an opinion about religion :"* 
but, beyond this, it appears to be the aim of the 
state to extend a j ust and equal measure of direct 
support and patronage to all sects and professions 
of belief. Thus, when a state-legislature assembles, 
it is the prevailing custom that the ministers of all 
such bodies should be invited to act by weekly ro- 
tation as their chaplains ; and this extends to every 
extreme of opinion. A professed Socinian is invited 
to officiate as chaplain before the descendants of 
those Puritans who left their fathers' land to wor- 
ship the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth ; 
and a Romanist offers up the public worship of 
states, from which a few generations back the priest 
was banished under the penalty of death. 2 

This custom is not confined to state-assemblies. 
The congress, at the opening of every session, elects 
a chaplain for each of its two houses, with an 
understanding that both chaplains shall not be of 

1 Voice from America, p. 159. 2 Ibid. p. 161. 



440 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the same sect. Thus every sect in the course of a 
few years receives in turn the compliment of this 
selection. The same rule applies to their army and 
navy chaplains, who are commonly elected merely 
for their personal attainments, and without the ques- 
tion being even asked to what sect or party they 
belong. So lax a system of entire indifference is, 
in truth, one development of infidelity ; for in this 
common encouragement of all sects there is at one 
time or another a denial of every truth. This must 
leaven the whole mind of the nation with the per- 
suasion that there is no such thing as objective 
truth, — and this is the first step towards professed 
unbelief. He who knows not whether any thing is 
true, begins to doubt of every thing ; and he who 
has once suffered doubt to dwell freely and at large 
within his breast, is already far advanced towards 
the positive disbelief of all things. 

Against this, then, the Church has continually 
to strive and testify. It is the first principle of 
every Christian man, that God has revealed to us 
a knowledge of Himself, of His will, of ourselves, 
and of our duty ; and that His word is true, that it 
is the truth. Of this truth the Church claims to be 
a " witness," and a " keeper" of this testimony. The 
points taught in the creeds are, therefore, no longer 
matter for doubt and speculation, but merely of 
faithful and willing reception, because they come 
from Him who is truth. On these matters it is not 
possible to enter into any compromise. It is not 



CHURCH OF ROME. 441 

possible for the true believer to help forward the 
fearful blasphemies of the Socinian, who denies the 
honour due unto the Saviour, by putting him for- 
ward to act publicly as a minister of that Lord 
whom he dishonours. 

Between, then, this fatal form of false religion 
and the truth as it is in Jesus, there must be a 
hard struggle. But not between these only. 

The sectarian principle itself must be success- 
fully opposed. This is at once the ultimate occa- 
sion of Socinian increase, and the present mother of 
a monstrous and misshapen brood of heresies. With 
these the Church must do open battle for her Mas- 
ter's truth ; whilst she must mildly open to others 
the truths after which they are seeking in their less 
perfect systems, and which perchance she may win 
them over to find fully in her own. Nor is this all : 
with the Roman communion, also, she has before her 
no common strife. True to the ordinary conduct 
of the papacy, the Roman pontiff founded the rival 
bishopric of Baltimore two years after the consecra- 
tion of Bishops White and Provoost ; and by the sub- 
sequent erection of the sees of New York, Philadel- 
phia, Boston, and Beardstown, 1 set up altar against 
altar through the West. Thus the episcopal commu- 

1 " There are serious difficulties affecting the regularity, 
and even the validity, of the ordination of the above-mentioned 
Carroll, and all the Romish clergy of the United States derived 
from him, in consequence of his ordination having been per- 
formed by only one titular bishop, who appears to have la- 



442 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

nion has always had to bear her protest against papal 
superstitions. But a severer strife is yet to be en- 
countered. With the keen-eyed policy which has 
always distinguished the schemes of Rome, she has 
turned her main attention to the valley of the Mis- 
sissippi. There a vast population is multiplying with 
unprecedented speed. The European emigrants to 
this quarter are, by a large majority, from popish 
countries ; and if not already of the Romish faith, no 
pains are spared to make them so. There, on the 
outskirts of civilised life, the adventurous settler, 
having left behind him the forms and opportunities 
of Christian worship, seizes eagerly upon a soil of 
unbounded fertility, and devotes all his thoughts to 
making it his own ; and there the enchantress meets 
him with her cup of sorcery, and wins him over, 
whilst there is no other near to whisper to him words 
of caution, or to shame the fallen Church with open 
rebuke. No expense is grudged in this peculiar 
work; funds are supplied, without any limit, from 
the Leopold Society of Austria, and from the Society 
for the Propagation of the Faith, the head-quarters 
of which are fixed at Lyons. 1 The population is 

boured under a similar irregularity or deficiency himself." — 
Palmers Treatise on the Church, vol. i. p. 305, note. 

1 " At St. Louis the Jesuits have lately erected, in addi- 
tion to their cathedral, a spacious church and a university, 
wit!} a library of ten thousand volumes, towards which only 
about eight thousand dollars were raised at St. Louis, the re- 
mainder of the funds coming chiefly from Lyons." — Private 
Letter of Rev. H. CaswalL 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 443 

becoming largely Romish ; and this, beyond all 
doubt, is to be the future seat of empire. The best- 
informed Americans expect that, after one more 
struggle, the West will command the elections of the 
Union ; and thus the centre of power will have been 
forestalled by Rome. But even now, and without 
waiting this accomplishment, her power is not to be 
contemned. Many peculiarities of life in America 
already tend to establish her dominion. The revul- 
sion of feeling, which ever drives men from one 
extreme to another, naturally leads those who have 
been wearied out by the fierce excitements of the 
various sects to seek for shelter in her delusive 
quietness. Her claim of infallibility seems to be a 
blessing to spirits which are utterly hopeless of find- 
ing out any truth amidst the conflicting claims of ten 
thousand contesting teachers ; whilst by her doctrine 
of the sacraments, her practical management of pen- 
ances, and her perilous medicine of enforced auri- 
cular confession, with its attendant absolution, she 
heals slightly the wounds of many a morbid and dis- 
eased conscience. The Romanists, moreover, have 
always known how to modify their doctrines and 
discipline, so as to turn to the best advantage the 
political circumstances of the country and the times. 
Thus, whilst under an absolute monarchy they are 
the greatest enemies of rational and lawful liberty, 
in republican America they are the most thoroughly 
democratical of all sects. At first sight it may be 
difficult to conceive how the popish discipline can 



444 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

be made to harmonise with an equalising democracy; 
but, upon looking more closely, it will be seen, as 
has been remarked by a keen observer of American 
society, 1 that Romanism is really most favourable to 
democracy ; for that under its system " the religious 
community is composed of only two elements, the 
priest and the people. The priest alone rises above 
the rank of his flock, and all are equal below him." 
None know better than the adherents of the papacy 
how to profit by such a state of society. Already 
they have tasted the sweets of political power. "They 
have grown/' we are told in 1839, " to an import- 
ant political influence, by the acquisition of Louisiana 
and by emigration from Europe, so as to be capable 
of turning a vote for a national administration in 
whichever scale they cast their weight, in the pre- 
sent nearly equal balance of political parties. They 
are generally found on one side, namely, the most 
thoroughly democratical and radical ; and as that is 
at present the dominant party, it may be said that 
they govern the country so far as that they are the 
means of keeping in power the party to which they 
are attached." 2 

Against the Episcopal communion the whole 
strength of the Romanists is bent. They fear no other 
body. In the multitude, variety, and extravagance 
of the sects is, they well know, the secret of their 
own strength, and the ground of their hope of one 

1 M. de Tocqueville. 

2 Voice from America, by an American Gentleman, p. 161. 



PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH. 445 

day reducing all to a common servitude. Their talis- 
man of might is in the apparent shelter and visible 
unity of their Church, and through it they hope to 
triumph ; but these in their reality are possessed by 
the Episcopal communion, and with them the blessed 
truth of Christ's gospel, free from those deep cor- 
ruptions which throughout Christendom mar every- 
where the countenance of Rome. 

With Rome, therefore, in the new world as else- 
where, the pure Church of Christ must wrestle. But 
there is no doubt of the result, if only she be true to 
herself. If, indeed, forsaking this high ground, the 
Episcopalian puts himself upon a level with every 
unscriptural sect around him, then he may expect to 
find Rome too strong for him. But if he maintains 
his true position, he cannot but resist successfully 
her multiplied and fearful errors. And for this con- 
test the Church in America has some peculiar ad- 
vantages. Her general convention enables her to 
meet the varying form of error, and to adjust in- 
ternal grounds of difference, to an extent altogether 
unattainable where, as at home, the power of as- 
sembling lawfully in synod has been, for any cause, 
suspended or removed. 

Such are the prospects of the Episcopal commu- 
nion. There can be no doubt that a hard struggle is 
before her ; that vast difficulties, social, moral, and 
religious, will impede her progress. The treatment 
of the negro race alone might amply occupy her 
energies; but besides this, she has the busiest people 
q a 



446 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

in the world to charm to Christian quietness. Peace 
must be breathed over their unresting eagerness ; 
by cultivating college-life and the studies and devo- 
tions of a more learned clergy, still thoughts must 
be sheltered and fostered amidst those crowded 
haunts of men ; and safe, quiet resting-places must 
be formed in streams madder and more troubled than 
the waters of her own turbulent Missouri. She 
must bridle or subdue the outstretching atheism of 
the backwoods population, the extravagance of the 
multitude of strange sects, as well as the decent un- 
belief of Socinian Boston ; she must expose the 
subtle errors of the Romish Church. All this is no 
ordinary work ; yet all this, and more than all of it, 
she may accomplish, if she is but true to her own 
principles. If she abandons these, she is indeed 
lost. Whether swallowed up by the sects, or en- 
gulfed by Rome, or sinking into the Socinian he- 
resy, it were vain to prognosticate ; but her fall is 
certain. The history of the King's Chapel 1 at Bos- 

1 " Where the ' King's Chapel' now stands, the first Epis- 
copal church in New England was erected in 1689. It was 
built of wood, but was replaced in 1749 by a stone church, 
which cost little less than 10,000/. It was distinguished by a 
succession of royal gifts. In 1697, communion -plate was given 
to it by King William and Queen Mary ; and in 1772 arrived 
together gifts from Georges II. and III. Only eleven years 
after this, the first fatal step was openly taken, by the adoption 
of an altered liturgy, from which the Athanasian Creed and the 
opening sentences of the litany were formally excluded. From 
that time its descent has been rapid ; and now, with a mutilated 



PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH. 447 

ton stands as a beacon-light to warn her from this 
dangerous course. Of the urgency of these dangers 
in times past, the absence of the Athanasian Creed 
from her public formularies is a painful record. It 
is still, no doubt, the abiding loss of one great safe- 
guard against error. It is impossible to estimate 
too highly the value of those hymns of thanksgiving 
which associate with the emotions of our earliest 
worship the deep mysteries of revelation. Against 
all enticements therefore to adopt a lower tone, she 
needs specially to stand upon her guard. He who 
bears the vow of the Nazarite must not adopt as his 
rule the ordinary customs of society around him. 
If he slumbers in the lap of ease or worldly con- 
formity, the Philistines will bind the champion of 
God's host ; and he who should have delivered Is- 
rael will ere long grind sightless in the world's mill, 
or make rude merriment for God's enemies. 

But if in the character of Christ's witness, loving 
and proclaiming His truth in its simplicity, minis- 
tering His sacraments faithfully and purely, she re- 
sists the evils around her, then in God's name will 
she surely triumph over all opposition. To do 
which there must be no dread of martyrdom when 
truth requires the sacrifice. At all costs she must 
bear the burden of the Lord, and bless the religious 
and social life of those given to her. This she can 

service and heretical creed, it is an avowedly Socinian congre- 
gation. " — From Dr. Greenwood's History of Kings Chapel, 
quoted by Buckingham, vol. iii. p. 447. 



448 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

do in the strength God gives to His faithful wit- 
nesses, if that strength is called out and used for 
Him. But to be thus strong, she must bring out 
her own principles. There must be no faltering 
step swerving towards the sects around her, no 
secret coveting of the Babylonish garment which is 
stored within the tents of Rome. Her banner must 
be indeed, " Evangelical truth with apostolical order, 
— the gospel in the Church." There must be no 
paring down, on the one side, of the great doctrines 
of grace ; no attempt, on the other, to win the good 
will of men by changing, according to their wander- 
ing fancies, that form of Church-order which Christ 
has appointed. It is impossible by such a course to 
turn aside reproach and opposition. This cannot be 
avoided by any sacrifice short of " the intercommu- 
nity of services ;' Jl that is, of an entire abandonment 
of all claim to apostolic constitution. For this is the 
real question in dispute between herself and others : 
and the less are the ostensible reasons for separation 
from them, the greater is the irritation which inevit- 
ably awaits those who still insist on separation; for 
in them it seems to be founded on no great principle, 
and to be therefore causeless, which makes it injurious 
and insulting. They who have thought that the outcry 
sometimes heard against the Church at home is ex- 
cited by its being established by the nation, and not 
by its bearing witness against the lawfulness of secta- 

1 Reed and Matheson. 



PROSPECTS. 449 

rian subdivision, may be surprised to find that, to an 
English dissenter, the claims of the Episcopal commu- 
nion are more offensive in America than here, " where 
there is something of pomp, and privilege, and num- 
bers to uphold these pretensions." 1 There it appears 
to him to be incredible exclusiveness. Hence in that 
land it is doubly needful that the true grounds of 
those actions which provoke this judgment should 
be calmly but clearly stated. It must be felt that 
they who act thus do so because they believe that 
Christ having founded a fixed form of Church-life, 
it is not lawful for them at their own will to alter 
it, or to acquiesce in its reconstruction, to please the 
taste of other men. This, and this only, can justify 
their separation : if the Episcopal Church of America, 
instead of being the witness against all sectarian di- 
vision, is herself regarded as one of the sects, then 
is she indeed the most exclusive and overbearing of 
them all. Her sons must be felt not to be maintain- 
ing in a hostile spirit their own dogmas, but in the 
heartiest love to be bent on sharing with their less 
favoured brethren the riches of their own inheritance ; 
and this they cannot do unless they themselves believe 
in its reality. Nothing can more fatally deny their 
own true standing-ground than the unhappy custom, 
prevalent upon their days of solemn gathering, of 
publicly inviting, often by their bishops' voice, to the 
table of the Lord, not only their own members, but 

} Reed and Matheson, vol. ii. p. 75- 
Q Q 2 



450 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" all who consider themselves as in good standing 
with their own denomination." 1 

But it is not enough that the distinctive features 
which mark this communion should thus be kept clear 
and plain. There must also be a high tone on those 
great moral and social questions which are rising daily, 
and on which mere politicians have no utterance of 
principle. There must be no timid silence as to 
great enormities. In those mighty issues which in- 
deed try the spirits of men, her voice must be clear. 
Thus, for example, the treatment of the negro popu- 
lation must be her care ; the equal worth of the co- 
loured race must be unequivocally held and asserted 
by her. It must no longer be the reproach of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church that it is only in the 
Romish cathedral at New Orleans that whites and 
blacks are seen to kneel together, 2 as those who 
were made of one blood by one Father, and redeemed 
from common death through the cross of one only 
Saviour. Timid, compromising conduct on these 
great subjects, safe as it may seem at present, will, 
more than any thing besides, weaken through the 
whole nation the moral weight of any religious body. 
By an universal law of God's providence, it is in 
doing battle for His truth that men exercise and 
train their own spirits, and subdue the herd of weaker 

1 No question is asked as to the great fundamentals of the 
faith; but even Socinians may avail themselves of the promis- 
cuous invitation. 

2 Retrospect of Western Travel, vol. i. p. 128. 



PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE. 451 

minds to their rule and government. By its courage 
or unfaithfulness on this one question, the Church, 
as far as we can see, is fixing now for good or ill its 
true weight and standing in the coming generation. 

Many favourable signs give hopeful promise of 
its rising to its true dignity of action. On all sides 
• there is a growing disposition to act meekly and 
calmly, but yet steadily, upon its own principles. 
It is carrying throughout the Union its episcopacy 
and apostolic discipline. It is providing for clerical 
education and the formation of a clerical charac- 
ter amongst those who are to bear the ministry of 
Christ. On every side it is seeking to remove the 
irregularities and contradictions which, in its weak 
and uncertain beginning, were suffered in its consti- 
tution, as the fruits of ignorance within itself, or con- 
cessions to prejudice without. Attempts are even 
now making to limit the elections of members of 
convention to those who are in regular communion. 
Conventions are increasingly commenced with the 
celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 1 
In its missionary organisation the true and highest 
form of Church-societies is visibly developed. The 
whole body is thereby acknowledged the society, and 
its rule and government is placed in the same hands 
which have received from Christ's appointment the 
administration of His Church. On other points, at 

1 Before the general convention of 1841, nearly 1500 com- 
municants met together at the Lord's table in St. John's church, 
New York. 



452 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the same time, the tone of thought and action is 
manifestly rising. The poor are, far more than they 
were, the care of this communion. The institution 
of free churches, although not yet wholly successful, 
is a practical avowal of their sense of this obligation. 
Even on the slave-question the Church is not wholly 
silent. She has turned away from the baits held out 
by the Colonisation Society. 1 One bishop, and not 

1 In the convention of 1823, the bishops declined the pro- 
posal of sending a delegate to an intended meeting of that body, 
but expressed approbation of their object. Bishop White's 
Memoirs y p. 51. This was a charitable construction of the 
purposes of that society. No doubt many truly humane men 
have joined it with the hope of colonising Africa with free 
blacks, and thereby introducing into that unhappy continent, 
and amidst its estimated 30,000,000 of the negro race, civili- 
sation and Christianity. And to a certain extent, this, we may 
hope, will be the result of their colony of Liberia on the African 
coast. But the great effect of the scheme, if it succeeded, would 
be to remove from America all the free coloured population 
who are the natural guardians of their brethren in slavery, 
and so to rivet for ever the fetters of the slave. It is, in fact, 
the safety-valve of that system, and therefore is in favour 
amongst all the advocates of slavery in the northern as well 
as the southern states. For whilst it promises to the south 
the secure possession of their slave labours, it falls in with 
northern prejudice by being a practical declaration, that the two 
races cannot co -exist together in a state of freedom, and that 
deportation must be a condition of the black man's liberty. 
The statements of one of its ablest advocates, 2 carefully pre- 
pared, too, to fall in, as far as possible, with the prejudices of 



Letter to the Hon, Henry Clay, &c, by R. R. Gresley. 



BISHOP MEADE AND SLAVERY. 453 

the least distinguished of his order, has been scarcely 
held back by the full force of official forms from 
recording his solemn protest against the exclusion 
from the General Theological Seminary of the can- 
didate of negro blood ; and in two at least of the 
churches of the north the African has been acknow- 
ledged to be, as much as his white brother in the 
priesthood, the witness of Christ's resurrection, and 
the steward of His mysteries. 1 Even in Virginia, 
from the bishop's seat, a whisper may be heard. 
Bishop Meade has put into his Manual of Devo- 
tion this prayer for the use of a master of a family 
in the slave-district : — " O heavenly Master, hear 
me whilst I lift my heart in prayer for those unfor- 

England on this subject, scarcely veil this view. Their tone 
cannot be mistaken. They are a plausible apology for the 
" peculiar social institutions of the south.' ' They would justify 
perpetual bondage amidst the sugar-canes and cotton-plants of 
Georgia and Alabama, and the perpetual trampling on the free 
negro in the streets of Philadelphia and New York. 

1 It is due to those who, in this day of trial, have not shrunk 
from their principles, to record the names of those who have borne 
this witness. Bishop Doane of New Jersey, in June 1839, op- 
posed and sought leave to enter his protest against the decision 
of the trustees as to Alex. Crummell ; and he having since been 
ordained by the late Bishop Griswold, has been invited to share 
in the public services of the Church, " in the presence of large 
and fashionable congregations, as an equal brother, without a 
syllable of disapprobation disturbing the harmony of the scene,' ' 
by the Rev. George Burgess, rector of Christ Church, the Rev. 
Arthur Coxe (author of Athanasion, &c), minister of St. Ga- 
briel's, Windsor, and rector of St. John's Church, Hartford, 
Connecticut. Caste and Slavery, p. 22, 



454- AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tunate beings who call me master. O God. make 
known unto me my whole duty towards them and 
their oppressed race ; give me courage and grace to 
do it at all events ; convince me of sin if I be wrong 
in retaining them another moment in bondage.'* In 
the freedom of this happy land we cannot, without 
effort, easily believe how much true Christian daring 
was required to put forth even this gentle rebuke. 
God grant that it may soon be spoken in accents like 
those of the faithful prophet whose righteous soul 
would not endure that the people of the Lord should 
continue halting between two opinions. 

For if on this, and on other kindred subjects, her 
witness for God were clear and explicit, what could 
we fear for the Church in America ? It has already 
even gained on the rapidly increasing population of 
the United States. 1 Between 1814 and 1838, whilst 
the population of the Union has little more than 
doubled, it has quadrupled itself. Should its in- 
crease continue at this rate, it would in fifty years 
outnumber the mother Church, and before the end of 
a century would embrace a majority of all the people 
of the West. What is there but want of faith to limit 
this progress, or to prevent its dispensing every spi- 
ritual and social blessing to the busy people round 
it \ To say that it is beset by peculiar dangers, is 
only to assert of it that which may be said of the 
Church Catholic at every period since her first foun- 

1 Caswall's America, p. 3S6. 



CONCLUSION. 455 

dation. Never has she been free from danger ; never 
has it seemed less than imminent and menacing. At 
one time, persecution from without has threatened to 
beat down and root it out ; at another, heresy has raised 
against her its parti-coloured banner, and seemed 
ready to swallow up the faithful. Schism has some- 
times divided her ; and sometimes the friendship of the 
world and the fair speech of men has almost robbed 
her of her jealous love for truth, and sullied her 
virgin holiness. Yet in all trials, and through all 
opposition, God has ever held her up. And so it 
must be ; ever ready to fail, but never failing ; leav- 
ing, it may be, one land, to rise with new splendour 
on another ; out of weakness waxing strong : this 
has been and this must be her course. This was 
foretold of her when it pleased our Lord to shew to 
His first Twelve the shadow which her long-after his- 
tory cast forward : " Then shall many be offended, 
and shall betray one another, and hate one another : 
and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive 
many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love 
of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure 
unto the end, the same shall be saved. iVnd this 
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 
world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall 
the end come." 

So it has been, and so it must be to the end. Al- 
ways is there trial enough to betray the ungodly and 
the insincere ; always is there danger enough in fol- 
lowing Christ to lead the half-hearted to go over to 



456 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the world's side : but ever is there in Christ's pre- 
sence and in Christ's promises strength enough to 
hold up them that will cleave to Him. And so it 
will be until He come again : for He has founded 
His Church upon a rock ; and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against her. 



THE END. 



H 99 ~ ; 8 



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